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In its second edition, in 1601, the same text appears." However, following
the research history of the biography of Alexander the Great can also contrib¬
ute to broadening our knowledge if we ask the question who, when, and what
was known about the history of the Bibliotheca Corvina as a whole or its single
manuscripts. In this sense the history of respublica litteraria and the analysis of
epistolae doctorum virorum will also be the subjects of research. In connection with
the Zonaras manuscript, for example, Johannes Cuspinianus wrote to Willibald
Pirckheimer (1470-1530) on 18 October 1515:
Ego ut aperte fateor, heluo sum librorum, et undique ac undique singulos evolvo,
augulos. Sic repper in bibliotheca regia Budae tum ineditos insignes codices tum illum
praecipue Johannem Monachum: qui sub Alexio Commeno”? claruit, et graece histo¬
riam ab exordio mundi ad sua usque tempore elegantissime scripsit!"?
For future reference, the research history of all those classical or medieval texts
which appeared in the Corvina need to be reexamined to determine which version
of the text was used by the publishers. As an example, one exciting task is to deter¬
mine whether any of Ilamblichus Chalchideus’s publishers used the codex contain¬
ing the Marsilio Ficino translation (De Aegyptiorum Assyrorumque theologia) which
is assumed to have belonged to the Corvina.'*! The assumption is well founded as
we are acquainted with Ficino Francesco’s letter to Bandini (+1490?) and to Taddo
Ugoletti concerning the translation and delivery to Buda.'” The first edition was
published in the printing house of Aldus Manutius (1449-1515) in 1516, in
which his work about the life of Pythagoras had not yet appeared. Nor is it includ¬
ed in the 1577 Lyon edition by Johannes Tornaesius,'** which used the Aldus edi¬
tion. In the 1556 Rome edition, edited by Nicolaus Scutellius (1490-1542),’* both
works appear, but it is not mentioned in the forewards what codices were used and
if he had seen the assumed corvina manuscript now kept in London.'** Johannes
Arcerius Theodoretus (1538-1604) produced a new translation of both works at
the end of the 16th century, but the edition (Franeker, 1598, Aegidius Radaeus)'’’
is silent on its sources. By comparing Brassicanus’s collection of proverbium'** and
the texts of the 17th-20th century editions we might get nearer to answering the
question: did Matthias’s library play a role in preserving texts?
17 CuspiniaNnus 1601, 123, 469.
128 FREYTAG 1831, 5-7., Hans Derschwam (1494-1568) also wrote about this topic; see ORBAN A. 2020.
129 ]. Alexios Komnenos (1057-1118) the Byzantine emperor.
Freytac 1831, 7. — here refers to the letter of Maximilain I to Cuspinianus, published by KoLLar
1790, 634-642.
131 Csaponti 1973, Nr. 346.
132 Á8BEL-HEGEDÚS I., ed., Analecta nova, 1903, 254-255, 288. Taddeo Ugoleto/Ugoletti lived in Buda
between 1480 and 1490, he was the librarian of the Corvina.
133° VeneTus, in aedibus Aldi et Andreae Soceri, 1516 (OSZK Ant. 716.); Csapon1 1973, Nr. 346.
134 Luepunt, Ioannes Tornaesius, 1577 (OSZK Ant. 8450.)
55 Romag, Antonius Bladus, sumptibus Vincentii Luchrini, 1556 (OSZK Ant. 2038.)
136 BM Addit. MS. 21,165.; Csapop1 1973, Nr. 347.
17 OSZK Ant. 2037.
38 Jouannes Alexander Brassicanus, Proverbiorum symmicta, quibus adiecta sunt Pythagorae symbola... et
130
34