Matthias Corvinus was the king of Hungary from 1458 until
1490. He is known for many things—he was
the last great ruler of Hungary before it was divided between other dynasties,
including the Ottoman Turks, he was a warrior who led the Black Army and
strengthened the Hungarian state, and he was a bibliophile who amassed one of
the greatest libraries of his time, second only to that of the Vatican. Matthias loved learning and he collected
mostly Latin and Greek works and mostly manuscripts. Many collectors during the early printing era
were unsure of the quality of printed books in comparison to hand written
copies. His collection is estimated to
have been somewhere between 2000-2500 volumes and they were housed in a library
in Buda Castle and cared for by two Italian humanists who served as Matthias’s
librarians. Unfortunately, after
Matthias’s death in 1490 and the Ottoman conquest of Buda in 1541, the
manuscripts and books were dispersed, and many were destroyed. About 200 are known to exist today, with 53
of these being held in Hungary and the rest in collections around the
world. Matthias’ library is so famous,
that any manuscript or book known to have been in the Bibliotheca Corviniana is referred to as a Corvina.
The library is being reassembled "digitally" at the Bibliotheca Corviniana Digitalis, however, the only languages currently available are Hungarian and Italian. If you would like to read more in English, there is some additional information at UNESCO about the digital reconstruction.
Portrait of Mathias Corvinus from Wikipedia, labeled for reuse.
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