Miscellanea

The data sheet is partly based on: CSAPODI, Csaba, The Corvinian Library. History and Stock [transl. GOMBOS, Imre] (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1973) 431–432., CSAPODI Csaba, CSAPODINÉ GÁRDONYI Klára, Bibliotheca Corviniana. 4. bőv., átd. kiad. (Budapest: Helikon, 1990) 48–49., and the detailed description of the manuscript: PONTONE, Marzia, “Collezionismo di Corvine in casa Trivulzio. Appunti sui codici Trivulziano 817 e Trivulziano 818”, in ZSUPÁN, Edina, ed., A Home of Arts and Muses. The Library of King Matthias Corvinus. De Bibliotheca Corviniana. Supplementum Corvinianum 4. (Budapest: Bibliotheca Nationalis Hungariae, 2017.), 21–31.

 

DATA SHEET

Shelfmark: Cod. No 817
Country: Italy
City: Milan
Keeper location: Biblioteca Trivulziana
Digitized corvina: at the keeper location
Author: Diogenes Laertius (3rd century); Pseudo-Herodotus; Aelius Donatus (4th century); Petrus Candidus; Giulio Pomponio Leto (1428–1498); Eusebius (260/265–339); Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (c. 35– c. 96)
Content: Diogenes Laertius: Vitae philosophorum (transl. by Ambrogio Traversari); Pseudo-Herodotus: Vita Homeri (transl. by Pellegrino Agli); Aelius Donatus: Vita Vergilii; Petrus Candidus: Vitae quorundam Latinorum poetrum; Giulio Pomponio Leto: Vita Lucani; Ex annumerationibus Eusebii de temporibus per Olympiados poetarum quorundam Latinorum vitae, et primo de Q. Ennio poeta (transl. by Jerome); Marcus Fabius Quintilianus: De institutione oratoria (excerpts)
Translator: Ambrogio Traversari (1386–1439); Pellegrino Agli (1440–before 1469); Jerome (340s–420)
Writing medium: parchment
Number of sheets: II + 202 + I*
Sheet size: 329 × 225 mm
Place of writing: Florence
Date of writing: late 1470s
Scriptor: Hubertus W
Illuminator: several suggestions have been made: the school of Francesco d’Antonio de Cherico (cf. CSAPODI, Csaba, The Corvinian Library. History and Stock) / Antonio di Niccolo di Lorenzo (cf. CSAPODI Csaba, CSAPODINÉ GÁRDONYI Klára, Bibliotheca Corviniana) / Mariano del Buono (cf. PONTONE, Marzia, “Collezionismo di Corvine in casa Trivulzio ...")
Place of illumination: Florence
Date of illumination: late 1470s
Crest: the coat-of-arms of Matthias Corvinus (King of Hungary 1458–1490, King of Bohemia 1469–1490) has been repainted, but its imprint is visible on the page before the title page (fol. [II] v.). The Árpád stripes occupying the first and third heraldic fields are clearly visible, as is the fact that there was an inescutcheon. At present, the Austrian coat-of-arms appears on the title page instead of that of Matthias. On the front and back of the binding is the raven coat-of-arms of the Hunyadi family.
Possessor, provenience: the volume was produced at the end of the 1470s under the personal direction of Bartolomeo Fonzio (1446–1513) to satisfy the wishes of the Florentine banker Francesco Sassetti (1421–1490). Later, when financial difficulties arose, Sassetti sold the book to Matthias Corvinus. It is not known when and how the book left the court of Buda after the death of Matthias. Sometime in the late eighteenth century, the manuscript was passed to the Trivulzio family of Milan, together with the corvina Cod. No. 818, also kept in Milan, and the corvina Cod. Lat. 345 of the Hungarian National Library. The coat-of-arms of Matthias is repainted in the same style in all three manuscripts, using burgundy instead of red and dark blue instead of silver. The present manuscript was sold by Luigi Alberico Trivulzio (1868–1938) to the city of Milan in 1935.
Binding: original gilt corvina leather binding, gauffered-gilded edge
Language of corvina: Latin