Naldus: Epistola de laudibus augustae bibliothecae

The data sheet is the work of Monika Jakubek-Raczkowska and Juliusz Raczkowski, with the kind collaboration of Izabela Klawińska.

 

DATA SHEET

Shelfmark: Cod. Lat. 107 (old shelfmark: Cod. Lat. R. Fol. 21. 107.)
Country: Poland
City: Toruņ
Keeper location: Wojewódzka Biblioteka Publiczna - Książnica Kopernikańska
Digitized corvina: at the keeper location
Author: Naldo Naldi (1439–after 1513)
Content: Epistola de laudibus augustae bibliothecae atque libri quattuor versibus scripti eodem argumento ad serenissimum Mathiam Corvinum Pannoniae regem
Writing medium: parchment (with modern paper flyleaves)
Number of sheets: V + 62 + V*
Sheet size: 305 × 205 mm
Place of writing: Florence
Date of writing: late 1480s
Illuminator: Attavante degli Attavanti (1452–1517/1525)
Place of illumination: Florence
Date of illumination: late 1480s
Crest: coat-of-arms of Matthias Corvinus (King of Hungary 1458–1490, King of Bohemia 1469–1490), with the Árpád stripes in the first field, the Hungarian double cross in the second, the Dalmatian coat-of-arms in the third, the Bohemian lion in the fourth, and the Hunyadi raven in the inescutcheon
Possessor, provenience: Matthias Corvinus; the manuscript was purchased in the second half of the sixteenth century by a now unknown member of the patrician elite of Toruń, probably from the Italian or Austrian book market. The corvina was deposited in the library of the newly established Gymnasium Academicum in Toruń, and already appears in its first catalogue of 1594. The volume was held in great esteem in Toruń as a document of historical importance. In 1923, it was transferred to the Toruń City Library.
Binding: the original binding is lost, but the description in the Manuscriptum Baumgartianum tells us that it was a gilded purple brocade binding. This was replaced in the nineteenth century with a velvet binding of poor quality. It received its current modern leather binding after restoration. Gauffered-gilded edge.
Language of corvina: Latin
Condition: restored (1966, Tadeusz Tuszewski, Warsaw)