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Matthiass first meeting with printed books, with surviving documentation,
was in 1471. On 13" September of that year he thanked Julius Pomponius Laetus
in a letter for his present, a Silius Italicus text edition (De secundo bello Punico)
published by Laetus, sent to Buda by an illuminator called Bandius:""
,Reddite sunt nobis litere vestre per Blandium Miniatorem nostrum, his diebus Roma
cum codicibus ad nos reversum... Res est iam multorum ore trita, musas inter arma
silere, Nos tamen ut continuis quasi irretiti bellis, quidquid superest temporis, literis
non sine voluptate et solamine vovemus, hinc est, quod oblatum a vobis donum
gratissimo hilarique exceperimus non vultu solum, sed et animo, Silumgue Italicum
vestris conatibus Rome elegantissime nuperrime impressum”? his diebus sepius iam
revolverimus, placuit namque et in juventa nostra Silius, et nunc, dum bella canat et
ipse, eo tamen non obstante diffiteri nequimus, miseram esse Regum sortem, quod
bella gerere coguntur, ut sepius suos habitura triumphos, semper tamen sangvine
hominum madentia..."7?
Matthias’s letter has a very sincere tone, it must have been written by himself. He
was already acquainted with the text, evidently Silus could have been his favoured
reading material. From a book history approach the sentence namque et in juventa
nostra... (he read it in his younger years) means that he himself mentions a pos¬
sibly undiscovered codex.*° Since this edition of Silius Italicus Roman publication
is unknown it cannot be affirmed if the book was illuminated especially for the
king. Matthias’s appreciation (,e/egantissime impressum”) could refer to the shape of
the characters.
During the next year, 1472, De re militari by Roberto Valturio (1413-1485)
was published at the Verona studio of Joannes Nicolai da Verona.* 22 manuscript
copies of this work are known, all of them richly decorated.*” Determining which
codex’s images were used for the first printed edition, who illustrated the differ¬
ent editions, and which manuscript was copied from the original 1472 edition,
can only be the result of a long research. Many have dealt with this issue and two
contrary opinions have emerged. On the one hand it is believed the printed ver¬
sion was made after the Dresden codex, on the other hand the belief is that the
printed work was copied for King Matthias. In any case this printed edition is
the first with technical illustrations on wood engravings.** Valturius’s work was
available in several copies in his library. It is also possible that the printed edition
7 Cr. SziLADy 1877, 37.; also mentioned: Fraxnöı 1902; Dezsı L. 1902.
78 Hain 14.734, ISTC is00504000. Cf. Csaponi 1973. Nr. 598.
” "Tue publication of the letter: TELex1J. 1855, 454-455.
59 Turs can be supplemented by Csapon1 1973.
HC 15847, ISTC iv00088000; Orscnkı 1900, I, 46-55.
WE quote here only one of the last two summaries from an incredibly rich literature: DONATI, a cura di,
Il potere, le arti, la Guerra, 2011.
§3 Tus is the opinion of Schugring 1907, 103-104.
84 RoDAKIEwirz 1940. Here, the author summarises the ideas about the connections between most of
the codices, the wall paintings of the Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini, and the pictorial material in the
early printed editions.
85 Sanper, M. 1942, Nr. 7481.; Generally: GILBERT 1995. Cf. Batocu J. 1966, I, 330.
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