Cyrillus: Thesaurus
Saint Cyril of Alexandria (cca 376–444) was a prominent figure of the era of the Church Fathers. From 412, he was Patriarch of Alexandria and all along his militant reign fought against heretics (Arians and Nestorians). A strict advocate of the unaltered Christian tradition, he formulated the accurate theological definition of the double nature of Christ: Jesus Christ is real god and real human being. The present work (cca 423/5), written against the Arians who denied the Holy Trinity, is a framework of the literature of Trinity discussion. It was translated from the Greek into Latin between 1453 and 1455 by Georgius Trapezuntius (1395–1471/2), a Byzantine humanist born in Crete who lived in Italy. The text, dedicated for Alphonse of Aragon, king of Naples, is the first Latin translation that served as a standard until 1638.
The codex received a gilded Corvina binding at the library of King Matthias. The title-page and the initials were removed at a later time. The modern-age history of the volume is unknown, except that it got to the National Museum of Bosnia from the Dominican monastery of Ragusa in 1890, and from there it entered National Szechenyi Library in 1897. The restorers at NSZL replaced the missing pages and initials using the technique of parchment casting. (Edina Zsupán)
DATA SHEET
Shelfmark: Cod. Lat. 358.Country: Hungary
City: Budapest
Keeper location: National Széchényi Library
Author: Cyrillus Alexandrinus
Content: Thesaurus de trinitate
Translator: Georgius Trapezuntius in 1453/55 for Alfonso of Aragon, King of Naples
Writing medium: parchment
Number of sheets: 126 fol.
Sheet size: 278 × 195 mm
Possessor, provenience: From the Dominican monastery of Ragusa, the book got into the Bosnian National Museum in 1890, and from there, by way of exchange, into National Széchényi Library in 1897.
Binding: original gilded leather corvina binding; gauffered, gilded edge (probably in the late 1480s)
Language of corvina: Latin
Condition: Frontispiece and initials had been cut out; the place of the latter was replaced with parchment casting by the restorers of NSZL
Comment: Surriano had copied it in 1514; the copy is included in NSZL's codex shelfmarked OSZK Cod. Lat. 371.
Hungarian translation(s) of work(s) included in the corvina: None