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central, princely collections (library, archives), a school (preferably an institution of
higher education), and a printing house was the intention of all the princes.**” This
is also true of Zsigmond Bathory, who employed Istvan Szamosközy as an archi¬
vist at his court. It was during his reign that Janos Baranyai Decsi’s translation of
Sallustius** was published, in the preface a late humanist translation programme
can be found. In it Baranyai Decsi lists the ancient authors he thinks would be
useful to translate into Hungarian. This programme was implemented by Gabor
Bethlen (1613-1629) and Prince Gyorgy Räköczi I (1631-1648). The Corvina as
an instrument of the representation of power was carefully discussed by Arpad
Miké,® while the cult of Matthias, which was revived under Gabor Bethlen and
György Rákóczi, is also known in great detail in the Hungarian literature.°* It is
natural, therefore, that these princes, like Mihaly Apafi, who had very good rela¬
tions with Turkish politicians, made a serious effort to obtain the codices that had
been left in Buda and those that had been transported to Constantinople. Ignac
Batthyäny’s (1741-1798) interest in corvinas was altogether different. (We should
not forget that when he wrote the letter to Besangon, published in the Appendix,
he was studying theology in Rome (1764), and only ended up in Transylvania in
1780.) He fits into the mid-18th century Aungaricum collecting habits of the Hun¬
garian Kingdom and Transylvania. As bishop, he sent his librarian Imre Daniel
(1754-1804)! to the Vatican to facilitate this activity; whose catalogue’ can to
this day still be the starting point for the work there. Bishop Batthyäny’s activities
in public institutional collections also correspond with the consistent activities of
the Hungarian clergy in creating public collections. Paradoxically, they laid the
foundations for public civic culture.
‘The Jesuit efforts to exchange the remains of the Corvina need a more serious
explanation. In our opinion, there were two reasons behind it. Of course, the two
concepts are in the same framework, and the second one is to emphasise the role
of the Jesuit order in the restoration of the institutional system of Hungarian (that
is, the Hungarian Kingdom’s) culture. Getting the Corvina could have been a
symbolic achievement. The re-Catholicisation efforts that energetically unfolded
at the beginning of the 17th century were mainly focused on the Hungarian aris¬
tocratic families, with great success it must be added. At the propaganda level, it
would have been a very useful tool for propaganda if the books from Buda could
have been obtained: the Jesuits would have participated in the spiritual care of the
population under the Turkish conquest, at the same time “liberating” the books
of the great king from captivity, culturally elevating the country, etc. But beyond
this, we venture the hypothesis that there might have been more to it.
57 Cr. Kranıczay T. 1985a., KLanıczay T. 1985b.; KLanıczay T. 1991.
8 Baranyal Decsi—Kurcz, Az Caivs Crispus Salvstiusnac..., 1979.
539 Mixó 1999.
540 COMPREHENSIVELY: TARNÓC 1978.; BIrskEY 1980.
541 MArza A. 2020.; MArza A. 2020a.
542, PUBLISHED GRAFINGER 2002, I, 316-324.
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