Page 25 [25]
Printed books in the Corvina ¬
publishing based on corvinas
‘The history of the Bibliotheca Corvina is connected to the world of printed books
on two points. One of them is the question of the incunabulum, the other is the
issue of how the manuscripts kept in the library became the subject of printed edi¬
tions and parts of the textual criticism apparatus.*”
Incunabula in the tth-century royal and
princely libraries
Leafing through the pages of the past forty years’ exhibitions’ catalogues intro¬
ducing royal libraries, it can be seen that printed books show up in considerable
numbers on the libraries’ shelves only about thirty-forty years after the actual ap¬
pearance and spread (1460-1470s) of printed books.** As mentioned before, theo¬
retically Philip III (1396-1467) or his third wife Isabelle de Portugal (1397-1471)
could have been presented with a printed book; their son, Charles I (1433-1477)
or his daughter, Mary of Burgundy (1457-1482)*' surely received books; while
their grandchildren, Philip the Handsome (1478-1506) and Archduchess Mar¬
garet of Austria (1480-1530)* lived to see the golden age of humanist book print¬
ing. Regardless, only the members of the next royal generation, e.g.: Charles V
(1500-1558), Ferdinand I (1503-1564),° and Mary of Hungary (1505-1558),°°
collected and used printed materials regularly. We of course do know the father of
57 A separate issue is the world of manuscript copies of corvina texts. They may simply have been made with
the intention of obtaining a manuscript or text, but also for the purpose of textual critical analyses and
preparation for publication by certain authors. A copy of the first manuscript contemporary description
of the Corvina has also survived (a copy of the Naldi Codex made by Sandor Székely Dobai (1704¬
1779) (Esztergom, Main Cathedral Library, collection Batthyäny, Hist. IV b.)). Edina Zsupan keeps a
separate register of the copied codices.
58 CF. ÖscHEMA 2005.
59 LEMAIRE-HENRY-RoUZET, ed. Isabelle de Portugal, 1991.
6% CocKsHAW-LEMAIRE-ROUZET, ed. Charles le Téméraire, 1977.
61 BEAUNE 2000.
62 BOUSMANNE-WIJsMAN-THIEFFRY, ed. Philippe le Beau, 2006.
® DeEBAE, ed, La librairie de Marguerite dAutriche, 1987; DEBAE 1995.
68 Ditnteg, hrsg., Kaiser Karl V., 2000; KgusE, hrsg. Austellung Kaiser Karl V., 2000.
6% SEIPEL, hrsg., Kaiser Ferdinand I., 2003.
6% Monok 1989; RETHELYI-ROMHANYI-SPEKNER-VEGH, eds., Mary of Hungary..., 2005; cf. RETHELYI
2007.
23