MP logo MP title

Ákos Dömötör: The Origination of the Orbis Pictus

The author of this article has sought to illustrate the importance of the ’Sarospatak test-printing on Comenius' illustrated manuscript Orbis pictus. The paper attempts to summarise the profound influence of the publishing activities of Nurenberg's Endter family, that is, Comenius' published text was the result of a collective effort on the part of illustrator, author and publishers. This analysis also seeks to explicate the way in which Comenius' work and the Endter Calendars mutually inflenced one another. German emblematic art also had a significant part to play in this process. The illustrations of the early calendars may be said to particularly parallel those etchings to be found in the Orbis pictus - evidence of the author's contention - and the paper also refers to certain inherent coherencies discoverable between those didactic emblems to be found in the Orbis pictus and that of the theological literature of the period. The myterious Y-symbol further expanded the investigation into the realms of chiromancy. The importing of the calendars into Transylvania affected the Hungaro-Romanian-Saxon tradition. The illustrations in Comenius' printed manuscript are concluded to have been consciously designed as an artificial instrument of folk memory.

MAGYAR PEDAGÓGIA 96. Number 2. 169-184. (1996)

Levelezési cím / Address for correspondence: Ákos Dömötör Angyalföldi Helytörténeti Gyűjtemény, H–1132 Budapest Váci út 50.

 
PDF

Magyar Tudományos Akadémia