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Breviary of Matthias Corvinus, Vatican Library, Urb.Lat.112. Photo: Attavante degli Attavanti, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Br%C3%A9viaire_de_Matthias_Corvin_en_exposition_-_BAV_Urb.Lat.112.JPGDownload 1920px
Bibliotheca Corviniana
Buda, Hungary, About 1460
lostreconstruction, imagined
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A reconstruction, imagined
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- visitedGenerated image, not a photograph. Based on Naldo Naldi's poem as summarised by Csaba Csapodi: a vaulted first-floor room on the Danube side beside the chapel, gilded shelves in three rows round the walls, curtains of coloured and gold thread, carved chests beneath, two stained-glass windows with the king's couch under a golden cloth, and three-legged chairs. Csapodi adds a vault painted with stars and reports that an adjoining room was added later. Miklos Olah describes two connected vaulted rooms. The image shows a vault with gold stars and constellations, two stained-glass windows, a couch under gold cloth, brocade curtains, carved chests and three-legged stools. The shelves appear to have four rows, not three. The stools are backless, where the record says chairs. The books stand upright with spines facing out and gilt shields of arms across groups of spines, which no source states. The candle sconces and side tables are not in any source. The stone floor, the room shape and the vault ribs are guesses
Gilded shelves
Shelf, in an imagined viewNaldo Naldi describes gilded shelves in three rows running all around the walls, with the books grouped by content. The image has wooden shelves with gilt trim round the walls, but they appear to have four rows, not three. The books stand upright with their spines out. The sources do not say how the books were placed.
This view is imagined. The thing described is in the written record, and the source below says where.
attested secondary Source
Curtains against dust
Object, in an imagined viewCurtains woven of coloured and gold thread protected the books from dust. The image has swagged brocade curtains in blue, red and gold, tied back at each bay. How they hung and their exact colours are guesses.
This view is imagined. The thing described is in the written record, and the source below says where.
attested secondary Source
Two stained-glass windows
Object, in an imagined viewThe room had two stained-glass windows with the king's couch between them. The image has two tall pointed windows with coloured heraldic glass. The window style, the arched shape and the pattern of the glass are guesses.
This view is imagined. The thing described is in the written record, and the source below says where.
attested secondary Source
The king's couch
Object, in an imagined viewThe king's couch stood between the windows under a golden cloth. The image has a carved couch under a gold cloth below the windows. The cloth is the attested part; the shape of the couch is a guess.
This view is imagined. The thing described is in the written record, and the source below says where.
attested secondary Source
Carved chests
Object, in an imagined viewBooks too numerous for the shelves lay in richly carved chests beneath them. The image has carved wooden chests under each shelf bay. The carving pattern and the way they join the shelf bases are guesses.
This view is imagined. The thing described is in the written record, and the source below says where.
attested secondary Source
Chairs
Object, in an imagined viewCsapodi, following Naldi, lists three-legged chairs for readers. The image has three-legged stools with cushioned tops and no backs. They are stools, not chairs, and the design is a guess.
This view is imagined. The thing described is in the written record, and the source below says where.
attested secondary Source
Bindings
Shelf, in an imagined viewCorvinus codices were bound in gilded leather or in red, green, blue or violet silk or velvet, with the king's arms, gilded silver studs and enamelled clasps. The image shows red, blue and gold bindings standing upright, with gilt shields of arms across groups of spines. The colours loosely agree with the record. No source says arms showed on the spines, and the spine layout and clasps are not taken from any surviving codex.
This view is imagined. The thing described is in the written record, and the source below says where.
attested secondary Source
The vault
Object, in an imagined viewCsapodi's account gives a vault painted with the constellation of the stars at the moment Matthias became king of Bohemia in 1469. The image has a deep blue vault with gold stars and constellation figures, which follows that account. The star pattern is not the real 1469 sky. Csapodi reports that an adjoining room was added later, and Miklos Olah describes two connected vaulted rooms. The image shows one.
This view is imagined. The thing described is in the written record, and the source below says where.
attested secondary Source
Floor
Object, in an imagined viewNo source read describes the floor, the room dimensions or the vault height. The stone flag floor, the ribbed vault, the candle sconces, the side tables and the proportions of the room are invented.
This view is imagined. The thing described is a guess. No source records it for this library.
invented secondary Source
Where the books are now
Surviving items, by the institution that holds them today. Each line has its source and how well it is proven.
- Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Vienna, Austria
Corvinas, counted from the programme data sheets Count: 40
- National Széchényi Library Budapest, Hungary
Corvinas, counted from the programme data sheets Count: 37
- Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana Florence, Italy
Corvinas, counted from the programme data sheets Count: 33
- Biblioteca Estense Universitaria Modena, Italy
Corvinas, counted from the programme data sheets Count: 14
- Vatican Library Vatican City
Corvinas, counted from the programme data sheets Count: 12
- Herzog August Library Wolfenbüttel, Germany
Corvinas, counted from the programme data sheets Count: 9
- Bavarian State Library Munich, Germany
Corvinas, counted from the programme data sheets Count: 8
- Bibliothèque nationale de France Paris, France
Corvinas, counted from the programme data sheets Count: 7
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The record
Worth knowing
Bibliotheca Corviniana, worth knowing: A detail from a Trapezuntius corvina appears on the Hungarian 1,000 forint banknote.
Bibliotheca Corviniana, worth knowing: Hungarian kings showed guests round the library hall and gave some volumes away as presents.
Bibliotheca Corviniana, worth knowing: The Corvina site calls the library the first royal library outside Italy and north of the Alps.
Bibliotheca Corviniana, worth knowing: The Corvina site says the collection was destroyed most probably after Mohacs in 1526. Surviving volumes went to Istanbul as loot.
Bibliotheca Corviniana, worth knowing: The royal librarian Taddeo Ugoleto went to Florence in 1488 to organise a deliberate extension of the Hungarian royal library with volumes from Italy.
Built
Bibliotheca Corviniana, built: Collecting began about 1460 (reign 1458-1490)
Volumes
Bibliotheca Corviniana, volumes: 216 Corvinas survive in libraries across Europe and the US
Bibliotheca Corviniana, volumes: Library size at Matthias' death: 2,000 (OSZK) vs about 3,000 (Wikipedia); exact size unknown
Reconstruction
Bibliotheca Corviniana, reconstruction: Library hall on the Danube side of Buda Castle, near the royal chapel and throne hall, per Naldo Naldi's account (via corvina.hu).
Bibliotheca Corviniana, reconstruction: Bookcases with inlaid decoration; open shelves protected from dust by heavy red curtains (Naldi, per corvina.hu). Curtain colour varies by summary: Csapodi has curtains of coloured and golden yarn, Pajorin has purple woven with gold thread. Shelves with curtains are the common core; red specifically is corvina.hu only.
Bibliotheca Corviniana, reconstruction: Double windows fitted with stained glass (Naldi, per corvina.hu). Csapodi and Pajorin agree on stained or coloured glass; Csapodi counts two windows.
Bibliotheca Corviniana, reconstruction: Two high vaulted rooms, one for Greek and one for Latin authors, in the Danube-facing wing next to the throne room (hungarianconservative.com, no witness named). Csapodi traces the two-room version to Oláh (two vaulted chambers) and says Naldi describes only one room; the second was added later as the collection grew.
Bibliotheca Corviniana, reconstruction: A contemporary report says the library was two large halls divided into Greek and Latin writings (unattributed). Csapodi: Naldi describes one room, Oláh two, so the number of halls depends on the witness and the date.
Bibliotheca Corviniana, reconstruction: Accounts differ: hungarianconservative.com says volumes sat on carved, gilded pedestals along the walls under coloured shrouds, and names no witness. corvina.hu (Naldi) says bookcases with inlaid decoration and open shelves behind heavy red curtains. Csapodi (gilded shelves in three rows, curtains, carved chests beneath) and Pajorin (three-part shelves, curtains, chests beneath) both describe shelves with curtains; neither mentions pedestals or shrouds. Follow corvina.hu/Csapodi/Pajorin; pedestals unsupported.
Bibliotheca Corviniana, reconstruction: Accounts differ: hungarianconservative.com has a royal rostrum between the stained-glass windows overlooking the Danube. Csapodi has the king's couch covered with a golden cloth between two stained-glass windows; Pajorin has a bed with a gold coverlet at the end of Naldi's hall so the king could rest while reading. Both of those rest on Naldi; no rostrum appears in them.
Bibliotheca Corviniana, reconstruction: Volumes rested on the shelves with the front cover down, so people entering could see the decorated bindings.
Bibliotheca Corviniana, reconstruction: Highly vaulted library premises on the first floor of the royal palace, in the Danube-facing wing, close to the royal chapel (Csapodi, citing Naldi and Gerevich).
Bibliotheca Corviniana, reconstruction: Light came through two stained-glass windows, between which stood the king's couch covered with a golden cloth (Csapodi, on Naldi). Pajorin separately has a bed with a gold coverlet at the end of Naldi's hall.
Bibliotheca Corviniana, reconstruction: Gilded shelves in three rows ran all around the walls; manuscripts lay on them grouped by content, with curtains of coloured and golden yarn against dust.
Bibliotheca Corviniana, reconstruction: Books without room on the shelves were kept in richly carved chests beneath them; three-legged chairs stood in the room for readers (Csapodi).
Bibliotheca Corviniana, reconstruction: Shelves divided in three parts, decorated with leaves and precious stones, with purple curtains woven with gold thread against dust; codices without room above kept in chests below.
Bibliotheca Corviniana, reconstruction: Naldi calls the library a 'sacellum sapientiae' and places it next to the palace chapel, so the king could hear the choir from the library.
Bibliotheca Corviniana, reconstruction: The vault of the library showed the sky at the moment Matthias became king of Bohemia (Csapodi, citing Stephan Gerlach's diary). Pajorin: Naldi does not mention the horoscopes; foreign visitors of the later 16th century do. She adds that one vault carried the king's horoscope, and that Vladislaus overpainted the Bohemia constellation of another with his own, so details differ between summaries.
Bibliotheca Corviniana, reconstruction: Csapodi quotes Oláh for two vaulted chambers, the first stocked with Greek volumes and the inner with Latin codices, and notes Naldi describes one room.
What happened here
1460Bibliotheca Corviniana, founded, 1460: Matthias starts collecting for Buda library
1513Bibliotheca Corviniana, damaged, 1513: Viennese humanists (Gremper, Cuspinianus, Brassicanus) transfer codices from Buda to Vienna
1526Bibliotheca Corviniana, lost, 1526: Books taken to Istanbul after Mohacs (1526); some saved earlier by Viennese humanists
Photographs
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Opening page of a Corvina: George of Trebizond's Rhetoricorum libri, copied for Matthias Corvinus in Buda in the 1480s, parchment. Photo: Georgius Trapezuntius, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trapezuntius_Rhetoricorum_libri_corvina.jpgDownload 1920px
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Opening page of a surviving Corvina holding works of Bede and Seneca, with a royal coat of arms in the border (Munich, BSB Clm 175). Photo: Beda Venerabilis és Seneca, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:M%C3%BCncheni_corvina_Beda_Venerabilis_%C3%A9s_Seneca_m%C5%B1veit_tartalmazza_Johann_Jakob_Fugger_1544.jpgDownload 1920px
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Red velvet binding with metal clasps of a Corvina copy of Augustine's City of God, produced in Naples c. 1475-80. Photo: Augustinus Aurelius, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Augustinus,_Aurelius_De_civitate_Dei_corvina_v%C3%B6r%C3%B6sb%C3%A1rsony_k%C3%B6t%C3%A9se.jpgDownload 1920px
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Buda Castle above the Danube, Budapest. Photo: Jakub Hałun, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20190502_Zamek_w_Budapeszcie_0647_1862_DxO.jpgDownload 1920px
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Excavated ruins of the medieval castle on Castle Hill, Buda. Photo: Jakub Hałun, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:20190502_Buda_Castle_Budapest_1101_2028_DxO.jpgDownload 1920px
_from_across_the_Danube,_Budapest_(2025).jpg){kind=link}
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The Royal Palace on Buda Castle Hill seen from across the Danube. Photo: Paul Colin Hennig firstdorsal.eu, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Buda_Castle_(Royal_Palace)_from_across_the_Danube,_Budapest_(2025).jpgDownload 1920px
Books from this library
Sources
- https://oszk.hu/en/print/1995
- https://oszk.hu/node/7254?mobile=off
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliotheca_Corviniana
- https://corvina.hu/en/about-corvinas/history/history-of-the-library/
- https://www.hungarianconservative.com/articles/culture_society/medieval-royal-library_hungary_king-matthias
- https://www.unesco.at/en/communication/documentary-heritage/memory-of-the-world-in-austria/bibliotheca-corviniana
- https://www.corvina.oszk.hu/en/about-corvinas/history/history-of-the-library/
- https://tertullian.org/articles/csapodi_corviniana.htm
- https://iti.abtk.hu/images/pajorin/lopera-di-naldo.pdf
- https://corvina.hu/en/about-corvinas/curiosities/corvina-detail-on-the-one-thousand-forint-banknote/