Hans P. Kraus

Hans Peter Kraus ( also HP Kraus and Hans P. Kraus, often only HPK; born October 12, 1907 in Vienna, † November 1, 1988 in Ridgefield (Connecticut) ) was an Austrian- American booksellers, antiquarian and collector.

Following the work of R. Lechner in Vienna and Ernst Wasmuth in Berlin, he opened in Vienna in 1932 his own book business, in a difficult economic time. In 1938, after the German annexation of Austria, he was arrested and sent to Dachau concentration camp. After some months he was transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp, from where he was released after eight months, he returned to Vienna, Austria, however, had to leave within two months. He could sell his business and then emigrated via Stockholm to New York.

In New York, he opened a shop and his hands were some of the most valuable books: for example, the pickup Gospel book, The Book of Hours of Maria of Cleves, several Gutenberg Bibles, rare first editions of Caxton 's Canterbury Tales, the Voynich manuscript, which Constance Missal, St. Blaise Psalter and many others.

Its approximately 223 published bookseller catalogs contain detailed descriptions of the books and manuscripts.

Hans Peter Kraus was one of the most successful booksellers, comparable with retailers such as Bernard Quaritch, Guillaume de Bure and the Rosenbach brothers. Kraus specialized in medieval manuscripts and incunabula. He is said to have said of himself, he had " the only bookstore in the story ... which is in possession of a Gutenberg Bible and the same two Psalter of 1457 and 1459 ". ( This refers to the two earliest printed Psalter, by the successors of Gutenberg, Johann Fust and Peter Schoeffer ).

After the death of his wife Hanni (1919-2003), the business was dissolved.