Skip to content

Hungarian Chronicle by Johannes de Thurocz - 1488

by Johannes de Thurocz

Hungarian Chronicle by Johannes de Thurocz - 1488

Hungarian Chronicle

by Johannes de Thurocz

  • Used
  • first
The very rare first edition of Thuróczy's Hungarian Chronicle - with 42 woodcut illustrations in contemporary colouring.

The lawyer János Thuróczy (Latin: de Thurocz or Thwrocz; c. 1435-1488/49) was notary at the royal court in Buda since 1481, and became protonotary in 1486 under the chancellor Thomas de Drag (d. 1490/91), to whom he dedicated the present work. Thuróczy wrote the Chronica Hungarorum in 1486-1487. The first and larger part is based on earlier manuscript chronicles and the first printed Chronica Hungarorum (Buda 1473); it comprises the beginnings of Hun and Hungarian history until 1386. The final part, the description of the last century, he composed himself upon own research from chancellery records.

After its impressive opening woodcut, the text is further illustrated with forty-one portraits of Hungarian kings and military leaders, all enthroned, the kings with sceptre and orb. Especially remarkable and attractive are the portraits of the great patron of humanism and manuscript collector, King Matthias himself, and the solitary female, Queen Maria.
  • Bookseller Independent bookstores CH (CH)
  • Format/Binding Recased into 16th-century German dark brown calf on wooden boards, tooled in blind to a panel design formed of fillets, rolls an
  • Book Condition Used
  • Quantity Available 1
  • Edition First edition
  • Publisher Conrad Stahel and Matthias Preunlein
  • Place of Publication Brno
  • Date Published 1488
  • Keywords history, chronicle, european history, printed book, illustrations, portraits, royalty