KOSTER (or Coster), LAURENS (c. 1370-1440), Dutch printer, whose claims to be considered at least one of the inventors of the art (see [Typography]) have been recognized by many investigators. His real name was Laurens Janssoen-Koster (i.e. sacristan) being merely the title which he bore as an official of the great parish church of Haarlem. We find him mentioned several times between 1417 and 1434 as a member of the great council, as an assessor (scabinus), and as the city treasurer. He probably perished in the plague that visited Haarlem in 1439-1440; his widow is mentioned in the latter year. His descendants, through his daughter Lucia, can be traced down to 1724.
See Peter Scriver, Beschryvinge der Stad Harlem (Haarlem, 1628); Scheltema, Levensschets van Laurens d. Koster (Haarlem, 1834); Van der Linde, De Haarlemsche Costerlegende (Hague, 1870).
KOSTROMA, a government of central Russia, surrounded by those of Vologda, Vyatka, Nizhniy-Novgorod, Vladimir and Yaroslav, lying mostly on the left bank of the upper Volga. It has an area of 32,480 sq. m. Its surface is generally undulating, with hilly tracts on the right bank of the Volga, and extensive flat and marshy districts in the east. Rocks of the Permian system predominate, though a small tract belongs to the Jurassic, and both are overlain by thick deposits of Quaternary clays. The soil in the east is for the most part sand or a sandy clay; a few patches, however, are fertile black earth. Forests, yielding excellent timber for ship-building, and in many cases still untouched, occupy 61% of the area of the government. The export of timber is greatly facilitated by the navigable tributaries of the Volga, e.g. the Kostroma, Unzha, Neya, Vioksa and Vetluga. The climate is severe; frosts of −22° F. are common in January, and the mean temperature of the year is only 3°.1 (summer, 64°.5; winter, −13°.3). The population, which numbered 1,176,000 in 1870 and 1,424,171 in 1897, is almost entirely Russian. The estimated population in 1906 was 1,596,700. Out of 20,000,000 acres, 7,861,500 acres belong to private owners, 6,379,500 to the peasant communities, 3,660,800 to the crown, and 1,243,000 to the imperial family. Agriculture is at a low ebb; only 4,000,000 acres are under crops (rye, oats, wheat and barley), and the yield of corn is insufficient for the wants of the population. Flax and hops are cultivated to an increasing extent. But market-gardening is of some importance. Bee-keeping was formerly an important industry. The chief articles of commerce are timber, fuel, pitch, tar, mushrooms, and wooden wares for building and household purposes, which are largely manufactured by the peasantry and exported to the steppe governments of the lower Volga and the Don. Boat-building is also carried on. Some other small industries, such as the manufacture of silver and copper wares, leather goods, bast mats and sacks, lace and felt boots, are carried on in the villages; but the trade in linen and towelling, formerly the staple, is declining. There are cotton, flax and linen mills, engineering and chemical works, distilleries, tanneries and paper mills. The government of Kostroma is divided into twelve districts, the chief towns of which, with populations in 1897, are Kostroma (q.v.), Bui (2626), Chukhloma (2200), Galich (6182), Kineshma (7564), Kologriv (2566), Makariev (6068), Nerekhta (3002), Soligalich (3420), Varnavin (1140), Vetluga (5200) and Yurievets (4778).
KOSTROMA, a town of Russia, capital of the government of the same name, 230 m. N.N.E. of Moscow and 57 m. E.N.E. from Yaroslav, on the left bank of the Volga, at the mouth of the navigable Kostroma, with suburbs on the opposite side of the Volga. Pop. (1897), 41,268. Its glittering gilded cupolas make it a conspicuous feature in the landscape as it climbs up the terraced river bank. It is one of the oldest towns of Russia, having been founded in 1152. Its fort was often the refuge of the princes of Moscow during war, but the town was plundered more than once by the Tatars. The cathedral, built in 1239 and rebuilt in 1773, is situated in the kreml, or citadel, and is a fine monument of old Russian architecture. In the centre of the town is a monument to the peasant Ivan Susanin and the tsar Michael (1851). The former sacrificed his own life in 1669 by leading the Poles astray in the forests in order to save the life of his own tsar Michael Fedeorovich. On the opposite bank of the Volga, close to the water’s edge, stands the monastery of Ipatiyev, founded in 1330, with a cathedral built in 1586, both associated with the election of Tsar Michael (1669). Kostroma has been renowned since the 16th century for its linen, which was exported to Holland, and the manufacture of linen and linen-yarn is still kept up to some extent. The town has also cotton-mills, tanneries, saw-mills, an iron-foundry and a machine factory. It carries on an active trade—importing grain, and exporting linen, linen yarn, leather, and especially timber and wooden wares.
KÖSZEG (Ger. Güns), a town in the county of Vas, in Hungary, 173 m. W. of Budapest by rail. Pop. (1900), 7422. It is pleasantly situated in the valley of the Güns, and is dominated towards the west by the peaks of Altenhaus (2000 ft.) and of the Geschriebene Stein (2900 ft.). It possesses a castle of Count Esterhazy, a modern Roman Catholic Church in Gothic style and two convents. It has important cloth factories and a lively trade in fruit and wine. The town has a special historical interest for the heroic and successful defence of the fortress by Nicolas Jurisics against a large army of Sultan Soliman, in July-August 1532, which frustrated the advance of the Turks to Vienna for that year.
To the south-east of Köszeg, at the confluence of the Güns with the Raab, is situated the town of Sárvár (pop. 3158), formerly fortified, where in 1526 the first printing press in Hungary was established.