Another 28 corvinas published digitally by the national library

2024/05/16

On 16 May 2024, the most recently published corvinas on the Bibliotheca Corvina Virtualis site were presented at a press conference in the Founder’s Hall of the NSZL.

As the keeper of the written cultural heritage of Hungary, the NSZL pays special attention to the intellectual heritage of King Matthias (1458–1490), the codices and the early printed books of the Corvina Library, and it considers it an important task to preserve the memory of the renowned Renaissance royal collection. More than 20 years ago, a systematic and detailed reprocessing of the surviving codices, scattered in libraries around the world, was launched, and since then the process has brought a wealth of new results. In spring 2022, the project was given a new impetus when the NSZL turned to foreign collections, and since then it has been continuously adding to the digital copies of the missing corvinas.

From May 2022 to May 2024, we have acquired a total of 46 digital copies of corvinas, and we have been granted permission to publish 19 items previously acquired. Today, in addition to the previously published corvina, 28 more corvina from the growing collection have been added to our corvina website, with high quality images and data in Hungarian and English, thus "returning home" to their peers. The Latin and Greek codices have been made available by institutions in eight countries (the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland).

At the press conference, Dávid Rózsa, Director General of the NSZL, gave a welcome speech, in which he emphasized that "the Corvina Library's codices are witnesses and testimonies to Hungarian culture that resonate in both domestic and international contexts. This important collection, even in its fragments, is a permanent and significant source not only for Hungarian but also for international Humanist and Renaissance studies, and one of Hungary's cultural markers in the world. Browsing the Bibliotheca Corvina Virtualis, it is safe to say that we have succeeded in creating a virtual space worthy of the richness of the Corvina's content and visual diversity, where everyone can access the information of their interest."

After the welcoming speech, János Nagy, State Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office, emphasised that "the collection of Corvinas and the digitisation of the Corvinas will fulfil the centuries-old dream of having King Matthias' Corvina Library in Buda again. Thank you to all those who searched, processed, digitised and published the scattered codices."

The programme continued with a presentation by Edina Zsupán, senior researcher at the National Library and member of the HUN-REN–NSZL Fragmenta et Codices Research Group, who presented some of the latest corvinas published on the Bibliotheca Corvina Virtualis website.

Related content:
Virtual reunion of the Corvina Library