Gáspár Heltai (1490?-1574) was a Transylvanian Saxon writer and printer of Saxon descent. His name possibly derives from the village Heltau

Cisnadie

Cisnădie is a town in Sibiu County, Transylvania, Romania located approximately 10 km from Sibiu. As of 2002, it has a population of about 17,871...

 (Hungarian Nagydisznod). Despite his German mother-tongue he published many books in Hungarian from his print-shop.

Career

He studied at Wittenberg University

Wittenberg University

Wittenberg University is a private four-year liberal arts college in Springfield, Ohio serving 2,000 full-time students representing 37 states and approximately 30 foreign countries...

 and he established the first print shop in Kolozsvár

Cluj-Napoca

Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...

, (now known as Cluj-Napoca

Cluj-Napoca

Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...

 or Cluj, Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

). He also founded a public bath, a paper mill

Paper mill

A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags and other ingredients using a Fourdrinier machine or other type of paper machine.- History :...

 and the first brewery

Brewery

A brewery is a dedicated building for the making of beer, though beer can be made at home, and has been for much of beer's history. A company which makes beer is called either a brewery or a brewing company....

 in the town. He was in the same time pastor, translator, printer, publisher, writer and businessman. He is considerer the first religious reformer of Kolozsvár.
He was a great spirit of Hungarian Unitarian

Unitarianism

Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....

 Reformation

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

. Together with a group of scholars he produced an almost complete translation of the New Testament

New Testament

The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

 in Hungarian. His work marked the first buds of a secular

Secularism

Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...

 literature in Hungary.

Bonfini translation

Heltai's most voluminous work is his reworking and translation of Antonio Bonfini

Antonio Bonfini

Antonio Bonfini was an Italian humanist and poet who spent the last years of his career as a court historian in Hungary with King Matthias Corvinus....

's Rerum Hungaricum Decades ("Ten Volumes of Hungarian Matters") which Heltai published in 1575 as Chronika az magyarok viselt dolgairól ("Chronicle of the Hungarians’ Past Deeds"). The work was printed in Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca).