Alberti, Leon Battista: De re aedificatoria

The source of the data sheet: CSAPODI, Csaba, The Corvinian Library. History and Stock [transl. GOMBOS, Imre] (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1973) 271., CSAPODI Csaba, CSAPODINÉ GÁRDONYI Klára, Bibliotheca Corviniana. 4. bőv., átd. kiad. (Budapest: Helikon, 1990) 54., and MIKÓ Árpád, “Az olomuci Alberti-corvina – Augustinus Olomucensis könyve”. Művészettörténeti Értesítő 34. (1985) 1–2., 65–72.

 

DATA SHEET

Shelfmark: Cod. Lat. C.O. 330
Country: Czech Republic
City: Olomouc
Keeper location: Statni Archiv. Domské a Kapitolni Knihovna
Digitized corvina: in the Manuscriptorium
Author: Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472)
Content: De re aedificatoria
Writing medium: parchment
Number of sheets: 210
Sheet size: 332 × 224 mm
Place of writing: Florence
Scriptor: Franciscus Collensis
Illuminator: Attavante degli Attavanti (1452–1517/1525) (signed)
Place of illumination: Florence
Date of illumination: between 1485–1490
Crest: the coat-of-arms of Matthias Corvinus (King of Hungary 1458–1490, King of Bohemia 1469–1490) was painted over and replaced by the coat-of-arms of Augustinus Olomucensis (originally Augustin Käsenbrot, 1467–1513), which was long mistaken by researchers as the coat-of-arms of John Szapolyai (King of Hungary 1526–1540), as the two are very similar. But certain elements of the coat-of-arms of Matthias are still visible under the repainting: the Árpád stripes in the first field, the Hungarian double cross in the second, and the Bohemian lion in the fourth. Of the other repainted coats-of-arms on the second title-page, the Árpád stripes, the coats-of-arms of Austria and Vienna, the Moravian and the Silesian eagle are either visible under the repainting or through the verso page. According to Árpád Mikó, the other, now invisible coat-of-arms may have been the Dalmatian coat-of-arms and the Hunyadi raven. The emblems of Matthias are visible in several places in the manuscrpt and have not been painted over: the dragon, the winch well, the flint and amadou, the gem ring, the barrel, the hourglass, and the coat-of-arms of Galicia
Possessor, provenience: Matthias Corvinus. Augustinus Olomucensis, royal adviser of Matthias' successor, Vladislaus II (King of Bohemia 1471–1516, King of Hungary 1490–1516), later vice-chancellor of Bohemia, who lived in Buda between 1496–1511, requested the codex from the king, and took it with him in 1511 to Olomouc, where he died two years later. After his death, the volume was moved to the library of the Olomouc cathedral chapter
Binding: contemporary gilded leather binding (early sixteenth century, Buda), gauffered-gilded edge
Language of corvina: Latin