Curtius Rufus: De gestis Alexandri Magni

The manuscript is a copy of the popular novel of the Roman author of the 1st century CE on Alexander the Great, made from the 1471 Wendelin von Speyer edition of Venice between 1471 and 1476, probably in Naples.
On the title-page you can see the Aragons’ coat of arms which makes it likely that the volume was brought to Hungary by Beatrice the future Queen in 1476. There is an encrypted Latin text on the flyleaf that probably originates from the environment of Queen Beatrice, or from her very hand, as it tells about events related to her known from other sources:
In the year 1491. Of our Lord, on the Sunday after Epiphany I arrived here, at Eger, and on the third day also arrived the glorious King Vladislaus who had been crowned in 1490 on the Sunday after the Exaltation of the Cross. (Edina Zsupán)

Source: The Corvina Library and the Buda Worskhop: [National Széchényi Library, November 6, 2018 –February 9, 2019] A Guide to the Exhibition; introduction and summary tables: Edina Zsupán; object descriptions: Edina Zsupán, Ferenc Földesi; English translation: Ágnes Latorre, Budapest: NSZL, 2018, p. 36

For a detailed codex description see:

Edina Zsupán, Quintus Curtius Rufus: Nagy Sándor (Res gestae Alexandri Magni), in: Edina Zsupán (ed.), “Az ország díszére”. A Corvina könyvtár budai műhelye, kiállítási katalógus, Budapest, OSZK 2020, Kat.-No B1, 168-169.

DATA SHEET

Shelfmark: Cod. Lat. 4.
Country: Hungary
City: Budapest
Keeper location: University Library, Eötvös Loránd University
Author: Quintus Curtius Rufus
Content: Res gestae Alexandri Magni
Writing medium: parchment
Number of sheets: II + 132 fol.
Sheet size: 330 × 236 mm
Place of writing: Naples (?)
Date of writing: after 1471
Illuminator: Gioacchino de Gigantibus (?) (Cf. Zsupán 2020, see above)
Place of illumination: Naples
Date of illumination: after 1471
Crest: Aragon coat-of-arms
Possessor, provenience: Queen Beatrice of Hungary (?); Ottoman sultans; it was returned to Hungary as a present of Abdul Hamid, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire in 1877.
Entries: There is an encrypted Latin text on the flyleaf that probably originates from the environment of Queen Beatrice, or from her very hand, as it tells about events related to her known from other sources: In the year 1491. of our Lord, on the Sunday after Epiphany I arrived here, at Eger, and on the third day also arrived the glorious King Vladislaus who had been crowned in 1490 on the Sunday after the Exaltation of the Cross.
Binding: 19th-century, paper board, red Turkish leather binding
Language of corvina: Latin
Condition: Restored (NSZL, Mrs. László Ballagó, 1986–1987)
Comment: Made from the 1471 Wendelin von Speyer edition of Venice.