Helias Helye en the first printed and dated book
24 August 2020
In 1470, Helias Helye (1400-1475) published the first dated printed book on the territory of present-day Switzerland.
At the age of seventy, he began his new career as a book printer in his house in Beromünster, today’s museum (Schloss-Museum). Until then, he was canon in Beromünster and priest in Neudorf.
In his younger years, he studied and lived in Basel, where he became acquainted with the beginnings of the publishing and printing industry, in particular at the time of the Council of Basel (1431-1448).
The first printed book, which dates from his printing house, is a textbook for the Bible, the ‘Mammotrectus super Bibliam‘.
The book is six hundred pages long and written in Latin. Although it was not commercially successful and his printing house went bankrupt, he printed five other books until he died in 1475.
Helias was born in Zurich and lived in Beromünster. His parents came from the Laufen Valley (Laufental), and he was a citizen of Laufen.
For this reason, a statue of this forgotten printer and pioneer stands in Laufen (today canton Basel-Landschaft). Laufen belonged to Basel until 1798.
(Source and further information: www.schlossberomuenster.ch).