897J Cicero (tr György Balog (1659–1726))

A’ Marcus Tullius Ciceronak négy könyvei, mellyek Sturmius Jakob altal öszve szedegettette nek … fordéttattanak Ralog György által.

Lötsén, Sámuel Brewer 1694 Price $4,000

Octavo 15x 10 cm. Signatures: A-K8 First edition, With a dedication to his students “To the noble and well-born youths of good disposition and good morals, as my beloved pupils, I dedicate with pure affection this little ‘buzzing’ of my work.” with a list of their names printed below with one that might match an ownership signature

“Possideo a. S. Georgio Heirmann. Anno Dñi 1702 Die 2. Januarii.//\I, Georg Heirmann, own [this book].
In the year of the Lord 1702,” on the 2nd day of January.”

as well as “Thomas Podhendny” It is bound in press paper boards covered with a 15th century fragment of a late-medieval liturgical Kalendarium.

This is the only page with a stain on it.

Johannes Sturm’s school edition of Cicero was first published in 1539. It was published several times in Hungary, and Balog presumably used one of these editions. From 1682, he was a teacher in Sopron, where he translated several ancient classics into Hungarian for his students. He translated the original text word for word, following the Latin structure precisely, even if it meant that the Hungarian was unnatural.

What the “four books” are: a Hungarian rendering of Jacob(us) Sturm’s didactic compilation of Cicero’s moral/philosophical set used in schools—De officiis, Laelius de amicitia, Cato maior de senectute, and the Paradoxa Stoicorum (a very common Sturm bundle in early-modern pedagogy). Modern Hungarian scholarship cites this exact 1694 Lőcse print in that Sturm context. iti.mta.hu+1

From 1682 György Balog was a teacher in Sopron, where he translated several ancient classics into Hungarian for his students. Balog György was born in 1659 in Széplak (a historical region in Hungary) and died on April 8, 1726, in Sopron. Wikipedia+1 He is often described as a schoolmaster or “iskolaigazgató” (school director) in contemporary Hungarian accounts, which suggests he was active in education and instruction in a Protestant (likely Lutheran or Reformed) milieu. Wikipedia Biographical tradition holds that after early schooling in Sopron, he went to a gymnasium in Naumburg and studied there for four years. Wikipedia Some sources also indicate that after becoming orphaned, he was raised by the widow of a certain Unger Joachim in Sopron. Wikipedia

In his scholarly activity, Balog is best known for his 1694 Hungarian translation of the four books of Cicero (the version compiled by Sturm), intended as a pedagogical text for “tánulo iffjak” (students or youth). Hungaricana Library+2Academia+2 That work is catalogued in the Régi Magyar Könyvtár as RMK I 1458 under his name. Hungaricana Library He also appears in modern studies of 17th-century Hungarian translation culture: for example, in Római szerzők 17. századi magyar fordításai (edited by Kecskeméti Gábor), which credits him with translating Cicero and preparing a Cornelius Nepos translation published in 1701 at Lőcse. Academia His translations are characterized by strongly literal, lexically conservative renderings (likely suited to didactic or interlinear style) as was common in early modern classroom Latin-Hungarian bilingual materials. Academia

Though not much more is known about his life (e.g. personal correspondence, broader oeuvre, or patronage) from the sources I located, he remains an important figure in the history of Hungarian classical education and translation, especially for his role in bringing Cicero into the Hungarian pedagogical curriculum in vernacular form.

RMK I 1458. ((Szabó no recorded U.S. copy)

Confirmed institutional copies (Europe)
• Pázmány Péter Catholic University (Budapest) — catalog entry for the 1694 Lőcse edition (Múzeális Könyvek collection). Hungaricana Library
• Somogyi Library, Szeged — OPAC hit for A’ Marcus Tullius Ciceronak négy könyvei (1694). Corvina
• Tiszántúli Református Egyházkerületi Nagykönyvtár (Debrecen) — RMK catalog explicitly lists 1694 Lőcse(and notes a later 1700 reprint—useful for edition control). Nagykönyvtár
• National bibliography confirmation: Régi Magyar Könyvtár (RMK I 1458) entry corroborates the edition, place, and date. Hungaricana Librar

https://www.library.illinois.edu/slavic/spx/slavicresearchguides/nationalbib/natbibhungary2

Jamesgray2@me.com