Evangelistarium secundum ritum tramontanorum
This liturgical codex was made in Buda around 1490, perhaps for the castle chapel. Its writing is not of the Renaissance but the Gothic style, as was apparently the established practice for liturgical codices. The decorated introductory page places the manuscript among the items of the Cassianus group. As in other items of this group of Corvinas, after King Matthias’s death the main possessor’s sign on the title-page was painted over to replace the Hunyadi’s raven in the second quarter of the royal coat of arms with the white eagle, the symbol of Vladislaus II as King of Poland. (Ferenc Földesi)
The data sheet is partly based on: CSAPODI, Csaba, The Corvinian Library. History and Stock [transl. GOMBOS, Imre] (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1973) 418–419., CSAPODI Csaba, CSAPODINÉ GÁRDONYI Klára, Bibliotheca Corviniana. 4. bőv., átd. kiad. (Budapest: Helikon, 1990) 46–47.
DATA SHEET
Shelfmark: MS 18Country: United Kingdom
City: Norfolk
Keeper location: Holkham Hall
Content: Evangelistarium secundum ritum tramontanorum
Writing medium: parchment
Number of sheets: III + 118 + III*
Sheet size: 215 × 325 mm
Place of writing: Buda
Date of writing: 1480s
Illuminator: Francesco da Castello (title page); another master working in Buda (inner initials)
Place of illumination: Buda
Date of illumination: c. 1490
Crest: coat-of-arms of Wladislas II (Vladislaus; King of Bohemia 1471–1516, King of Hungary 1490–1516) (the Árpád-stripes in the first field, the Polish eagle in the second, the Dalmatian coat-of-arms in the third, the Bohemian lion in the fourth); the Polish eagle, the Bohemian lion and the Dalmatian coat-of-arms also on separate shields
Possessor, provenience: in the manuscript, the raven of Matthias Corvinus (King of Hungary 1458–1490, King of Bohemia 1469–1490) was painted over with the Polish eagle, so the illumination began during the life of King Matthias, but was completed under his successor, Wladislas II; the volume was already in its present home, the library of the Earls of Leicester, in the mid-18th century
Binding: 19th century
Language of corvina: Latin