Miklós Misztótfalusi Kis’s ’Chinese Characters’ and the Beginnings of the Typographic Representation of Chinese Script in Europe

Abstract

This study examines a brief remark in a 1686 letter by the Hungarian punchcutter and printer Miklós Misztótfalusi Kis, in which he notes that he had been approached about cutting ’Chinese letters’. The article investigates the historical and typographic context in which this statement can be interpreted. A survey of seventeenth-century European printed works shows that Chinese characters were typically reproduced as engravings or illustrations and only rarely integrated into the typographic text. A turning point is represented by the 1688 French and English editions of Gabriel de Magalhães’s account of China, in which Chinese characters appear within the printed text, implying the use of specially produced types. A comparison of the editions reveals the experimental character of early European attempts to reproduce Chinese writing and the printers’ limited understanding of its structural principles. The study also examines the missionary and publishing networks behind these developments, highlighting the role of Philippe Couplet, and situates Misztótfalusi Kis’s Amsterdam activity within this broader context. Although no direct evidence proves that he cut Chinese types, his professional expertise and connections help to explain why his name could arise in connection with early attempts to reproduce Chinese characters typographically. The reference to ’Chinese letters’ thus reflects not a legend but a historical moment when European printing first confronted the technical challenge of adapting a non-alphabetic writing system.