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the cultic foundations of the future Habsburg Empire. Just as the empire-wide
cult of the Virgin Mary" was one such element of it, or the emphasis on honour¬
ing St John of Nepomuk, °* the Bibliotheca Corvina would not have been of interest
to them merely for the material value of the individual codices. The monarch who
can unite the country can even collect the pieces of the great king’s revered library.
Even if this fails, writing the history of the great library is still a significant feat.
It is no coincidence that from the second half of the 17" century, various cultural
groups from the Hungarian Kingdom and Transylvania emphasise their own cul¬
ture and traditions by comparing themselves to the Corvina. Specific examples
from the 17th and 18th centuries only appear in the internal historiography of the
Saxons, but in the national culture-building movements of the 19"-21* centuries,
numerous groups have already been using items from the former collection of
Matthias Hunyadi as an etalon, a standard for achieving high culture. Another
look at this story, with repetitions, with a focus on a premis that perhaps justifies
why we organise exhibitions of the Corvina’s surviving pieces in Hungary Austria,
and elsewhere in Europe.
The permanent and changing purposes of Bibliotheca Corvina
exhibitions and albums
‘The reputation of the library of King Matthias Hunyadi, King of Hungary, was
well known among his contemporaries. In Buda, the slowly developing capital of
the Hungarian Kingdom, he achieved the dream of the Italian, Bavarian, Czech,
Polish, Croatian, and Hungarian humanists who had travelled to Italy: to collect
Greek and Latin antiquity texts in his court, with the aim to complete the col¬
lection as much as possible. He had the individual codices copied and decorated
in the renowned workshops of the period, but he also arranged for a scriptorium
of similar quality to be established in Buda. The establishment of a library, which
also served as a representation of the monarchy, was part of a cultural and scien¬
tific policy advocated by the Hungarian and (especially) Italian humanists who
lived in the king’s orbit. The aim was to set an example for the high priestly and
noble courts in the Kingdom, to establish universities, scholarly circles, to found
a printing house, and to spread book culture and erudition. Matthias spent the
last years of his life (1485-1490) mainly in Vienna, with imperial ambitions, and
therefore aimed to establish a similar library there."
548 I mention some from the vast literature: Varca Cs. I. 1994.; EsterHAzy 1690, 1994.; EsrerHAzy
1691, 1995., Tüsk£s G.-Knapp 1995., Tüsk£s G.—Knapp 2002, 106-149.
59 In summary: Kıs T. N. 2022.
550 NEHRING 1989.
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