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a great collection during the first half of the 16th century.** The magnificently
illustrated histories, books of hours, old and contemporary literature were almost
all in French in this library.
England at the time of Matthias’s ruling was consumed by the war between the
Houses of Lancaster and York (Wars of the Roses). Henry VII (1484-1509), the
first Tudor monarch, was not exactly known for his high court culture. The family
had some books, mainly French and English history and legal manuscripts, along
with books of daily worship. At this time, there is no mention of a royal library
in England.”
In the international literature, including Italy, various opinions have been
formed on whether Matthias followed Italian models in forming his library or,
if inversely in numerous cases the Hungarian king presented an example which
various royal families tried to follow.” All contemporary rulers of city-states had
a renaissance court, which is why from the middle of the 16th century a number
of catalogues remained from the collections of significant families. The size of
these libraries varied between 100 and 600 manuscripts, hardly anyone had more.
Of course, by the middle of the 15th century many intellectuals and merchants
had smaller collections. Up to the time of Matthias the thematic and linguis¬
tic composition of private libraries had changed in such a way that the literature
was mainly in Italian (translations of antique authors, contemporary humanistic
works, history, entertaining literature, and religious literature, as the lives of the
Saints, or collections of speeches). Interestingly, this was also the case with leading
humanists. The Latin manuscripts and the growing number of Greek manuscripts
from the middle of the 15th century were accumulated in the libraries of mon¬
asteries, convents and churches. In general, the libraries of humanistic scholars
before or right after their owner’s deaths enriched the collection of institutions.
We know about very few multi-generational scholar libraries. Florence is a good
example for following the changes."
But let us move closer to the history of royal libraries in Northern-Italy. The
family who ruled the Duchy of Milan, the Sforza family began the establishment
of the great book collection? in Pavia. They started in the 14th century, many
books were introduced into the family by marriage with the Viscontis. By the first
third of the 15th century the library reached the size of almost 1000 volumes (a
catalogue remained from 1426) and the size did not change during the 15th centu¬
ry, since the Sforzas associated with several royal families through marriage, thus
the daughters kept reducing its size as part of their dowries. This was how those
codices made their way into Vienna that Bianca~-Maria Sforza took with herself
when she became the wife of the widower Emperor Maximilian I in 1494. At the
28 BrocH 1989, 311-331.
3 For the development ofthe Royal Library of England, see: GENET 2009.
® For a brief overview of libraries in Italy, see: BorrAsso 1984.
31 Bec 1984.
532 PELLEGRIN 1955.
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