Page 17 [17]
can be seen in his library as well (he might have had more hand-illustrated printed
documents or high guality engravings). Ihe library of the Dukes of Burgundy
numbered 910 pieces when the most books were counted. Ihe proportion of Latin
books was hardly 1596 and there were no Greek items among the listed codices.
More than 759 of the library was French literature (including the translation of
ancient authors), tales of chivalry, historical works, and collections of customary
law. Humanist Latin works only appear infrequently.
‘The situation is the same in language (specifically Latin) and content composi¬
tion when comparing it to the Castilian and Aragonese contemporary libraries.
Ferdinand II of Aragon (1452-1516) and Isabella I of Castile (1451-1504) thought
it important to help the court culture flourish, and to copy and publish books.
‘They themselves were collectors of gorgeously illuminated codices, while at the
same time they were careful to control the world of printed books (and censor
them) as well.”
Ihe reign of the Aragon family in Naples (1443-1504) and their court cul¬
ture provide a particularly important comparison since Ferdinand I of Naples’s
(1423-1494) daughter was Beatrice d’Aragona (1457-1508) who became the wife
of Matthias in 1476 at 19 years old. Although no catalogue has been found, half of
the known pieces from the family’s Naple’s court were in Latin, the rest in Spanish
and Italian. There were no Greek codices in the collection. Ferdinand I’s chil¬
dren’s tutor, Diomede Carafa wrote life advice to the youth in Italian, but when
Beatrice left to the Hungarian Kingdom the advice written for her was translated
to Latin (de institutione vivendi) and put into a separate codex to be read on the
way.” (This is the corvina kept in Parma today.) Why was the text translated
into Latin? Surely to practice the language since she would communicate with her
husband and his non-Italian environment in Latin.
The real founder of the French royal collection-where the library was seen
as an institution-was King Charles V (1364-1380). He collected all his books
from Vincennes, Fontainebleau, Beauté-sur-Mare, and the Royal Palace of Cité
to the Louvre (1368), had it catalogued, and enriched it further. By the end of the
reign of Charles VI (1380-1422), the beginning of the 15" century, his work was
destroyed, the library fell apart. The re-organisation was started by Matthias’s
contemporary rulers, Louis XI (1461-1483), undervalued in the relevant literature,
and later Charles VIII (1483-1498). It was Francis I who actually organised it into
MADERSBACHER-POKORNY, hrsg., Maximilianus, 2019.
3 Cr.: EscoLAR 1987; the Renaissance chapter, including the Castilian libraries: 206-210: The book
history of the transitional period — manuscript, printed book: FERNANDEz Caton, ed. Creadores del
libro, 1994.
LUCIANELLI-PINTO, ed., Lidri a corte, 1997.
% Carara-Läzär I. D.-Vien É. 2006.
26 Csapopt 1973, Nr. 228; the facsimile edition: CARAFA 2004.
27 Avrir-LAFAURIE, ed., La librairie de Charles V., 1968.
24
15