Seite 80 [80]
,Pro guibus [sc for viewing the coins — I. M] Optimus Princeps clementer sane et
comiter, ut solet, gratias primum egit; deinde Turcicos proferri ostendique Libros jus¬
sit, gquos Schoeningius?® copiarum adversus Turcam missarum Praefectus Buda at¬
tulerat. Et multi tum quidem de Budensis Bibliothecae reliquiis sermones habiti, quam
cognoscere jam tum animus ardeat. "9
In his third letter (27 April 1687) to the theology professor Gerardus de Vries
(1648-1705), he uses a very nice turn of phrase, expressing his desire to see Vienna
and the remains of the Corvina on his way from Prague to Vienna, just as Odys¬
seus longed to see his wife Penelope.
Ut tandem ad finem hujus Epistolae properem, Vir Celeberrime, credo ego, Lo¬
tophagorum regionem haud dissimili Bojohaemicae fuisse vel specie, vel indole: ita
ego invitus plane hinc avulsus potius sum, quam profectus; ef nisi, sicut Ulyssem
Ithacae suae ac Penelopes, ita me Viennae et Budensis Bibliothecae desiderium agi¬
tasset stimulassetque, Pragam ego haud ita cito, Bojohaemiam etiam multo serio
deseruissem. "9
For me, this shows that contemporaries were convinced that part of Matthiass
library was preserved by the Turks in Buda and was transferred to Vienna after
1686. He only confronted the sad reality after his arrival to Vienna, when he
was shown the state in which the manuscripts had been brought to the impe¬
rial capital. Instead of decorated manuscripts, he saw dusty, muddy, stained paper
manuscripts. Ihose beautiful manuscripts that had been brought to Vienna ear¬
lier filled him with admiration. He wrote about this to Iheodorus Janssonius van
Almeloveen (1657-1712), a medical doctor, in his fourth letter (15 May 1687):
.Mis Curae cultuique corporis unus et item alter dies concessus, ex quo Viennam veni,
cum proximo Lunae die Praefecto Bibliothecae Caesareae, Nesselio,”' Viro Excel¬
lentissimo, literas Reverendi Patris Wolffi”? commendatitias trado, ab eoque, qua
erat humanitate, e vestigio in Bibliothecam deducor, tam veterem Viennensem, quam
nuper Buda advectam. Sed, ah! ah! pro sperata voluptate nec opinum dolorem, pro
immenso, quod animo praeconceperam, gaudio ingentem cepi moerorem. Sallustium
hic me integrum inventurum nonnulla spes lactaverat, quem in Budensi Bibliotheca
eruditi quondam videant: et en! laceras heul situ, pulvere, vermibus corruptas nullius
ferme precii reperio reliquias! Huccine, Regum Magnificentissime Corvine, cura Tua
atque elegantia cecidit, ut quam immensis sumtibus ac laboribus collegeras Bibliothe¬
cam, tam foedum in modum, tam brevi dissiparetur; ut nullum tanto Principe dignum
superesset volumen! Sed abstersit magnam hujus doloris partim Caesareae Vien¬
368
ELeonora Géra helped me to identify it. Hans Adam Schéning (1641-1696), a military officer from
Brandenburg, was involved in the liberation of Buda from the Turks in the service of Emperor Leopold
I (biography: Schéning 1837 (on the reconquest of Buda here: 73—-145)). His title in 1686 was „Geheimer
Rath und General-Lieutenant”. Hans Adams Schéning’s Buda diary was also published in the biography
Kurd von Schéning: ScHONING 1837, 100-108 (no indication that he had seen any books there). ANo¬
NYMUS, Schéning, 1863 apparently abstracted ScHONING 1837.
3% Tottius-HENNIN 1700, 41.; Tottrus-HENNIN 1714, 41.
370 'Tottius—HENNIN 1700, 75.; ToLtrus-HENNIN 1714, 75.
371. DANIEL de Nessel (1644-1699), Peter Lambeck’s successor on the post.
372 T could not identify him. Perhaps Christoph Wolff, a Lutheran theologian, or Christian Wolff (11714),
a pastor known as a philosopher.
78