The Corvinas of King Matthias in the National Széchényi Library

Why is Bibliotheca Corviniana so special? Was the library of King Matthias really the most beautiful and largest library of Europe in the second half of the 15^th century? We can say that it probably was. In terms of size, only the library of the Pope could be compared to it, and although the exact size of the original Bibliotheca Corviniana is unknown, we assume that King Matthias’s was at least the second largest Renaissance collection close to an ideal Humanist library. King Matthias’s collection differed in many aspects from contemporaneous European libraries. The king of the Hunyadi house who barely inherited any books from his predecessors made a great achievement by building up his library in the royal court of Buda. And yet, the most important feature of Bibliotheca Corviniana was not its size but its advanced character. Apart from the standard works of the Middle Ages (encyclopediae, scholastic works etc.), it contained writings of the church fathers of Late Antiquity, classical Greek and Roman authors including newly translated ones, and several pieces of contemporaneous Humanist literature. It is not only the nostalgia for a glorious era of Hungarian culture history that endowes Bibliotheca Corviniana with special importance. King Matthias’s library is the most frequently used symbol of our culture history that since the 19^th century has been an unchanging element of Hungarian national identity.

The present edition gives an overview of the entire richness of the collection of National Széchényi Library, the largest group of codices remained of King Matthias’s library worldwide. An array of illustrations shows the works of each illuminator and all the types of bindery.