Bibliotheca Corviniana

The Bibliotheca Corvina (short Corvina ) is the world famous collection of books of the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus ( 1443-1490 ). They formed one of the largest and most valuable libraries in the age of the Renaissance and was accepted into the World Soundtrack Awards in 2005. It is largely lost or scattered, the demonstrated examples are called Corvinen.

Library

The flowering of the library began with the marriage of King Matthias with the art-loving Beatrix of Aragon ( 1476 ). Matthias Corvinus was with great effort together a library, for which he could be prepared in Italy magnificently decorated manuscripts. Messengers were sent by Italy, Greece and Asia Minor, the manuscripts of classical authors as well as Syrian and Hebrew writers should buy up. 33,000 ducats were available. It is estimated the extent of his term on 2000 volumes, bringing the Bibliotheca Corvina after the Vatican library was the second largest of its time.

Characteristic of the Bibliotheca Corvina are the most beautiful illuminations of the manuscripts with plotted coat of arms of the king, the ornamented with gold leather bindings and the velvet and Seideneinbände.

Nachgeschichte

Housed in the Palace of Buda, the library was scattered throughout the world after the king's death in 1490 and the conquest of Buda in 1541. On one hand, the successor of King Matthias were not as bibliophile like him, on the other hand took place after the conquest by the Turks in 1541 by Sultan Suleiman, a drastic reduction. Parts were kept in the Seraglio of Constantinople Opel and were returned in 1869 and 1877 Gifts of the Sultan to Budapest.

Today Corvinen

There are so far 216 Corvinen known. The most important collection has Hungary in the Széchenyi National Library of Budapest with 53 copies, and the Austrian National Library with 39 volumes. Several museums in Italy hold 49 pieces, the good part of the Biblioteca Estense in Modena. The rest of the stock is known about Germany ( 8 pieces Bavarian State Library in Munich, 9 pieces Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel, Dresden ), France ( 7 pieces ), Belgium, England, Turkey and the United States scattered.

A Hungarian project strives accordance with the Charter for obtaining the Digital Heritage (2003), sequel to the Memory of the World Programme of UNESCO, to the retro-digitization of manuscripts and early printed books. The reunification of the library as a digital collection would this pan-European heritage appropriately documented.