Josef Ritter von Kurzböck, also Joseph von Kurzbeck (21 November 1735,

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

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– 18 December 1792, Vienna, Habsburg Empire), was an Austrian printer, bookseller, merchant, estate owner and writer and one of the most prolific, Serbian Cyrillic printers in the Austrian Empire.

Biography

In 1755, he took over from his father the university book printing shop that had two presses and in the next few years he acquired 15 presses with a capacity to print books in Illyrian (Serbian Cyrillic) and Oriental languages. In recognition of his

typographic Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line spacing, letter spacin ...

achievements, he was granted permission to build a university bookstore. Kurzböck continued his technical improvements in letter casting and letterpress printing, making the privately-protected book printer with efficient equipment and fair prices to successfully compete against Johann von Trattner (1717-1798) the Court Printer. His letterpress products were among the finest in the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

as Austria and Hungary were then known. Empress

Maria Theresa Maria Theresa (Maria Theresia Walburga Amalia Christina; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was the ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position suo jure, in her own right. She was the ...

ennobled Kurzböck for his great merits in 1776. He translated several writings from Italian and published in 1779 an augmented and improved edition of the 1766 published "''Almanac de Vienne en faveur des éstrangers''" in German and French. In 1792, after von Kurzböck died, the Serbian (Illyrian) printing house was sold to Stefan von Novaković and the Oriental press was sold to

Anton Schmid Anton Schmid (9 January 1900 – 13 April 1942) was an Austrian ''Wehrmacht'' recruit who saved Jews during the Holocaust in Lithuania. A devout but apolitical Roman Catholic and an electrician by profession, Schmid was conscripted into the A ...

(1765-1855).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:von Kurzböck, Josef 1735 births 1792 deaths Austrian printers Booksellers from the Holy Roman Empire 18th-century Austrian writers Austrian translators 18th-century printers Writers from Vienna 18th-century translators Merchants from the Holy Roman Empire Printers from the Holy Roman Empire 18th-century Austrian scholars

Biography

See also

References