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their appearance with his knowledge of the manuscript’s existence. This raises the
question of whether the author of the ars historica might have encountered the
codex itself.
We looked at seven manuscripts, and in only one case were we unable to answer
the question of where Szamosközy got his information. This shortcoming illus¬
trates that if we systematically read the prefaces of all the editions of classical texts
associated with the Corvina, we can get a more accurate picture of how members
of the European humanist generations of the 16th century thought of this ruined
library. Such knowledge has also been available to those who, for one reason or
another, want to revive Matthias’s library.
17th-century attempts to retrieve the codices
left in Buda and taken to Constantinople
The attempts of the Jesuits
Count Michael Adolf von Althann (1574-1638), Austrian military commander,
was the diplomat of Emperor Matthias II, Holy Roman Emperor to the Turkish
court and in Transylvania to Prince Gabor Bethlen.*” The Count wrote to the
Pope on 8 April 1618, asking him to exchange the Buda library for Turkish books
in the library of the Duke of Tuscany.**’ Recently found further letters prove that
the Jesuit machinery, alongside the Pope, had also been set in motion. Muzio
Vitelleschi (1563-1645), the Jesuit Superior General, wrote a letter to Florianus
Avancinus (1561-1626), Rector of the Jesuit Collegium of Vienna (8 June 1618),
expressing misgivings about the success of the mission. He doubts that the Buda
library could be obtained in exchange for the Turkish books in the possession of
the Duke of Tuscany (Cosimo II Medici 1590-1621). If not the Pope, he, Vi¬
telleschi, is willing to write to the Duke on this matter."
Alias quoque literas easque paulo recentiores a Reverentia Vestra accepi, quibus
studium Ilustrissimi Comitis ab Altham, quo ille rem christianam in Hungaria, Tran¬
sylvania, Wallachia vicinisque regionibus promovere satagit, explicabat; quod ego a
me suggeri possit, quo a Magno duce Hetruriae capse illa librorum Turcicorum in
compensationem Bibliothecae Budensis impetrari possit; quod tamen admodum dif¬
32 ADBI, 366.
5303 FRAKNOI 1874, 297-299.
304 BatAzs M.—Fricsy—LuxAcs—Monok, ApATTAR 26, 1990, 322.
67