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vissza

12. The Corvina Library

According to the sources, the royal library took up two halls in the royal palace of Buda, in the range facing the Danube. Matthias built up the library at an ever-increasing rate in the 1480s, seeing it as of major importance in his succession plans. It took its name from the Corvin legend, the fictive ancient origins of Matthias’ family devised by Ransanus and Bonfini. Books for the library were given ornate leather or velvet bindings. Some of the codices were copied and illuminated (by illuminators from Lombardy) in Buda, and the gold-tooled Corvina bindings were also made locally. In the last few years of his reign, Matthias employed the foremost Florentine illuminators, including Attavante degli Attavanti (Brussels Missale Romanum), Bocchardino il Vecchio (the Budapest Philostratus) and the brothers Gherardo and Monte di Giovanni (the third volume of the Florence Bible). The Italian humanist Naldo Naldi described the Buda library in idealised terms. In reality, however, ancient authors and poets and fathers of the church were accompanied by medieval theologists and contemporary humanists. The library was a worthy match to Lorenzo de’ Medici’s library in Florence and Federico da Montefeltro’s in Urbino.