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Exhibiting decorated medieval codices has always been a rewarding task. Professionals, philologists, book historians, have been using these opportunites of the exhibitions of the manuscripts to show that these displays go far beyond professional interests. Ihese certainly cannot be financed without conveying the social and political messages linked to the subject of the research. In fact, a major exhibition was organised, initiated specifically as a result of the collaboration of the philological world. 1he first corvina exhibition was organised in 1877, when the Hungarian National Museum displayed the 35 codices that Sultan Abdul Hamid II presented to the students of Pest. This gesture by the Sultan, and the subseguent exhibition resulted in considerable press coverage and the publication of new studies on the origin of the codices. Afterwards, Emperor Franz Joseph decided to donate the four gift codices he received from Abdulaziz to the Hungarian National Library. In the period between the two world wars, especially around the 500th anniversary of the birth of Matthias Hunyadi (1940), research on the Bibliotheca Corvina was given new impetus, but the time was not ideal for organising major exhibitions. However, a bibliography of the history of the library was produced with the aim to achieve a complete bibliography at that time.’ The Hungarian representatives, those who had lost their wars and their country, excluded from the community of nations, wanted to emphasise their belonging to the European nations by presenting this collection. The communist Hungarian state also implicitly considered it important to present the history of the famous library for the same purpose. However, it should be noted that after 1963 the institutes of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences dealing with Renaissance research, especially the Institute of Literary Studies (thanks to Tibor Klaniczay), considered it essential to organise exhibitions or publish a major monograph on the history of books, including the findings of international Renaissance research. Csaba Csapodi and his wife, Klara Csapodiné Gardonyi, created the canon of the Corvina Könyvtár (Corvina Library) (what is the corvina?) with almost their entire life’s work by organising a travelling exhibition in Transylvania in 1967" and publishing a commemorative album of the complete codex collection. This album, supported by the state, also had significant propaganda value. Based on the 1967 exhibition catalogue, it was published in French (1967),°° followed in 1969 by three imprints in English,°” and one in German.*” ‘The second enlarged edition of this album, meanwhile Csapodi Csaba published his still essential book The Corvinian Library: History and Stock, ""? was published 566 CF. ERŐDI 1877. 567 Zounal K.-Firz 1942. 568 Csapopi-CsAPODINÉ GÂRDONYI, Bibl. Corviniana, 1967. CsaroDi-CsAPODINÉ GAÂRDONY1I, Bibl. Corviniana, 1967. CsAaPoDI-CsAPoDINE GÄRDONYI, Bibl. Corviniana, 1969.; Csapopi-CsAPoDINÉ GARDONYI, Bibl. Corviniana, 1969a.; CsApopI-CsAPODINÉ GÄRDONYI, Bibl. Corviniana, 1969b. CsAaPoDI-CsAPoDINE GÄRDOoNYI, Bibl. Corviniana, 1969c. 572 CsAPODI 1973. 569 570 571 122
