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Historia bibliothecarum
- Historia litteraria
‘The history of King Matthias’s library from its creation is bistoria litteraria. It was
created in order to have as many ancient texts as possible in one place; further¬
more, to form the basis for philological work and, of course, for the publication
and dissemination of these texts.°” This history became library history when it fell
apart. Of course, we also had to wait for the profession called “library historian” to
emerge. It took almost two centuries after the death of the founder of the library.
Noémi Viskolcz’s writings on Peter Lambeck*” also reveal that one of the librar¬
ian’s tasks was to record the history of the Imperial Library. As can be seen from
Viskolcz’s transcripts, in this story Matthias Hunyadi was given the same rank as
Emperor Maximilian I (1564-1576). Daniel de Nessel (1644-1699) indicates this
several times (de Augustissimae Bibliothecae Caesareae Vindobonensis origine...) when
referring to Lambeck in the revised edition of the catalogue of the manuscripts,
while highlighting the library activities of Johannes Cuspinianus (1473-1529):
,fanta enim, praeter eximiam facundiam, in Cuspiniano fuit prudentia, fides et tenaci¬
tas silenti, ut vigilantissimus Imperator fidissimo illus pectori reconditissima quaeque
tuto committere potuerit. Sub hoc itaque plurimum crevit Bibliotheca Caesarea ac¬
cessione non exigui numeri insignium codicum manuscriptorum, partim quidem ex
Monasticis quibusdam Austriacae ditionis Bibliothecis, quae speciali Caesaris jussu ea
de causa pervestigare, partim vero ex reliquiis Regiae bibliothecae Budensis, a Se¬
renissimo Hungariae Rege Matthia Corvino, qui A. C. 490 obit, ingentibus et plusquam
Regiis sumptibus olim institutae, quae A. C. 1526 cum Solimannus Turcarum Tyrannus,
post Ludovici Regis Hungeriae interitum, Budam occupasset, misere direpta varieque
distracta est
34 Tr is worth pointing out that one of the first initiatives in the history of Hungarian literature was taken
by Paolo Giovio, who, in his work on the great thinker, which has appeared in numerous editions,
devotes a special chapter to the u/tramontanus scholars. In it, he covers the period from the time of Mat¬
thias Hunyadi to the heyday of Tamas Nadasdy’s court in Sarvar, while mentioning a few names (Jovius
(Gıovıo) 1557, 276-289., Jovıus (Gıovıo) 1571, 295-304.). 1 also want to note that the Hungarian data
ofthe two editions are the same (the names of the mentioned scientists changed).
375 VıskoLcz 2006; VıskoLcz 2008; VıskoLcz 2009.
376 NeEssEL, Catalogi..., 1690, 169.
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