King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (1458‒1490), son of the “Scourge of the Turks,” John Hunyadi, was a foremost patron of early Renaissance art. He was only fourteen years old in 1470 when he was elected king, and his patronage naturally took some time and maturity to develop, notably through his relations with the Neapolitan Aragon dynasty. In December 1476, he married Beatrice, daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon, who brought to Buda a love of books and music she had inherited from her grandfather, Alphonse of Aragon.
I studied the work of Beatrice’s brother John of Aragon (Giovanni d’Aragona), previously known mainly from Thomas Haffner’s monograph on his library (1997), from the viewpoint of his influence on Matthias’s art patronage. John was born in Naples on June 25, 1456, the third son of Ferdinand I of Aragon. His father, crowned king by Pope Pius II in 1458 following the death of Alphonse of Aragon, intended from the outset that he should pursue a church career. Ferdinand’s children, Alphonse (heir to the throne), Beatrice, and John were educated by outstanding humanist teachers, including Antonio Beccadelli (Il Panormita) and Pietro Ranzano. Through his father and the kingdom’s good relations with the papacy, John acquired many benefices, and when Pope Sixtus IV (1471‒1484) created him cardinal at the age of twenty-one, on December 10, 1477, he made a dazzling entrance to Rome. John was — together with Marco Barbo, Oliviero Carafa, and Francesco Gonzaga — one of the principal contemporary patrons of the College of Cardinals.
On April 19, 1479, Sixtus IV appointed John legatus a latere, to support Matthias’s planned crusade against the Ottomans. On August 31, he departed Rome with two eminent humanists, Raffaele Maffei (also known as Volaterranus), encyclopedist and scriptor apostolicus of the Roman Curia, and Felice Feliciano, collector of ancient Roman inscriptions. John made stops in Ferrara, and Milan, and entered Buda — according to Matthias’s historian Antonio Bonfini — with great pomp. During his eight months in Hungary, he accompanied Matthias and Beatrice to Visegrád, Tata, and the Carthusian monastery of Lövöld and probably exerted a significant influence on the royal couple, particularly in the collecting of books. Matthias appointed his brother-in-law archbishop of Esztergom, the highest clerical office in Hungary, with an annual income of thirty thousand ducats.
Leaving Hungary in July 1480, John returned to Rome via Venice and Florence, where, as reported by Ercole d’Este’s ambassador to Florence, Lorenzo de’ Medici showed him the most valuable works of art in his palace, and he visited San Marco and its library and the nearby Medici sculpture garden.
In September 1483, Sixtus IV again appointed John legate, this time to Germany and Hungary. He took with him the Veronese physician Francesco Fontana and stayed in Buda and Esztergom between October 1483 and June 1484. The royal couple presented him with silver church vessels, a gold chalice, vestments, and a miter.
John’s patronage focused on book collecting and building. He spent six thousand ducats annually on the former. Among his acquisitions were contemporary architectural treatises by Leon Battista Alberti and Filarete, which he borrowed for copying from Lorenzo’s library. They were also featured in Matthias Corvinus’s library, perhaps reflecting John’s influence. Around 1480, during his stay in Buda (approximately 1478‒1480), the excellent miniaturist, Francesco Rosselli made the first few large-format luxury codices for Matthias and Beatrice. Both Queen Beatrice and John of Aragon played a part of this by bringing with them the Aragon family’s love of books, and perhaps also a few codices. The Paduan illuminator Gaspare da Padova (active 1466‒1517), who introduced the all’antica style to Neapolitan book painting, was employed in Rome by John as well as by Francesco Gonzaga, and John’s example encouraged Matthias and Beatrice commission all’antica codices. He may also have influenced the choice of subject matter: John collected only ancient and late classical manuscripts up to 1483 and mainly theological and scholastic books thereafter; Matthias’s collection followed a similar course in which theological and scholastic works proliferated after 1485. Anthony Hobson has detected a link between Queen Beatrice’s Psalterium and the Livius codex copied for John of Aragon: both were bound by Felice Feliciano, who came to Hungary with the Cardinal. Feliciano’s probable involvement with the Erlangen Bible (in the final period of his work, probably in Buda) may therefore be an important outcome of the art-patronage connections between John and the king of Hungary.
John further shared with Matthias a passion for building. He built palaces for himself in the monasteries of Montevergine and Montecassino, of which he was abbot, and made additions to the cathedral of Sant’Agata dei Goti and the villa La Conigliera in Naples. Antonio Bonfini, in his history of Hungary, highlights Matthias’s interest, which had a great impact on contemporaries; but only fragments of his monumental constructions survive.
We see another link between John and Matthias in the famous goldsmith of Milan, Cristoforo Foppa (Caradosso, c. 1452‒1526/1527). Caradosso set up his workshop in John’s palace in Rome, where he began but — because of his patron’s death in autumn 1485 — was unable to finish a famous silver salt cellar that he later tried to sell. John may also have prompted Matthias to invite Caradosso to spend several months in Buda, where he made silver tableware.
Further items in the metalware category are our patrons’ seal matrices. My research has uncovered two kinds of seal belonging to Giovanni d’Aragona. One, dating from 1473, is held in the archives of the Benedictine Abbey of Montecassino. It is a round seal with the arms of the House of Aragon at the centre. After being created cardinal in late 1477, he had two types of his seal. The first, simple contained only his coat of arm (MNL OL, DL 18166). The second elaborate seal matrix made in the early Renaissance style, of which seals survive in the Archivio Apostolico Vaticano (Fondo Veneto I 5752, 30 September 1479) and one or two documents in the Esztergom Primatial Archive (Cathedral Chapter Archive, Lad. 53., Fasc. 3., nr.16., 15 June 1484). At the centre of the mandorla-shaped field, sitting on a throne with balustered arm-rest and tympanum above, is the Virgin Mary (Madonna lactans type), with two supporting figures whose identification requires further research. The legend on the seal is fragmentary: (SIGILL?)VM ……….DON IOANNIS CARDINALIS (D’?) ARAGONIA; beneath it is the cardinal’s coat of arms in the form of a horse’s head (testa di cavallo) crowned with a hat. It may date from the time of Caradosso’s first presumed stay in Rome (1475‒1479), suggesting him as the maker of the matrix, a hypothesis for which as yet no further evidence is known to me. The seals of King Matthias have been thoroughly studied, and the form and use of each type have been almost fully established.
John of Aragon was buried in Rome, in his titular church, in the Dominican Basilica of Santa Sabina. Johannes Burckard described the funeral procession from the palace to the Aventine in his Liber notarum. Matthias died in 1490 in his new residence, the Vienna Burg, and his body was taken in grand procession to Buda and subsequently to the basilica of Fehérvár, the traditional place of burial of Hungarian kings. The careers of both men ended prematurely: John might have become pope, and Matthias Holy Roman emperor.
(The bulk of the research for this paper was made possible by my two-month Ailsa Mellon Bruce Visiting Senior Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts [CASVA] of the National Gallery of Art [Washington DC] in autumn 2019.) [fordította: Alan Campbell]
Ars Hungarica
Acta Historiae Artium
Jonathan J. G. Alexander: The Painted Book in Renaissance Italy, 1450‒1600. yale university Press, New Haven and London 2016.
Zsupán Edina szerk.: „Az ország díszére”. A Corvina könyvtár budai műhelye. (Az Országos Széchényi Könyvtár kiállításának katalógusa) Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, Budapest 2020.
Balogh Jolán: Néhány adat Firenze és Magyarország kulturális kapcsolatainak történetéhez a reneszánsz-korban. Archaeologiai értesítő ú. f. 40. 1923‒26, 189‒209.
Balogh Jolán: A művészet Mátyás király udvarában, I–II. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest 1966.
Balogh Jolán: Mátyás király és a művészet. Magvető Könyvkiadó, Budapest 1985.
Florio Banfi: Raffaello Maffei in ungheria. L’Europa Orientale XVII. 1937, 462‒488.
Jerry H. Bentley: Politics and Culture in Renaissance Naples. Princeton university Press, Princeton Ny 1987.
Berzeviczy Albert: Beatrix királyné, 1457‒1508. (Magyar történeti életrajzok) Magyar Történelmi Társulat, Budapest 1908.
Csapodi Csaba ‒ Csapodin Gárdonyi Klára: Bibliotheca Corviniana. 2., javított kiadás. Magyar Helikon‒Corvina, Budapest 1976.
Rerum ungarica rum decades IV et dimidia V. Tomus IV. ‒ Pars I. Edd. József Fógel ‒ Béla Iványi ‒ Ladislaus Juhász. (Bibliotheca Scriptorum Medii Recentisque Aevorum) M. K. Egyetemi nyomda, Budapest 1941.
Antonio Bonfini: A magyar történelem tizedei. Fordította Kulcsár Péter. Balassi Kiadó, Budapest 1995.
Stefano Borsi: Leon Battista Alberti e Na poli. Edizioni Polistampa, Firenze 2006.
Clifford M. Brown ‒ Sally Hickson: Caradosso Foppa (ca. 1452–1526/27). Arte Lombarda CXIX. 1997, 1, 9‒39.
D[avid] S[anderson] Chambers: A Renaissance Cardinal and his wordly Goods. The Will and Inventory of Francesco Gonzaga (1444‒1483). (Warburg Institute Surveys and Texts XX.) The Warburg Institute, university of London, London 1992.
Cecil H. Clough: Federico da Montefeltro and the kings of Naples: a study in fiftheenth-century survival. Renaissance Studies 6. 1992, 2, 113‒172.
Edina Zsupán hg. unter Mitarbeit von Christian Heitzmann: Corvina Augusta. Die Handschriften des Königs Matthias Corvinus in der Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel. (Ex Bibliotheca Corviniana. Supplementum Corvinianum III.) Bibliotheca Nationalis Hungariae, Budapest 2014.
Csapodi Csaba: The Corvinian Library. History and Stock. (Studia Humanitatis Vol. 1.) Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest 1973.
John F. D’Amico: Renaissance Huma nism in Papal Rome. Humanists and Churchmen on the Eve of the Reformation. (Johns Hopkins university Studies in Historical and Political Science, 101st ser., 1.) The John Hopkins university Press, Baltimore and London 1983.
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani. Treccani, Roma 1960‒
Albinia C[atherine] de la Mare: The Florentine Scribes of Cardinal Giovanni of Aragon. In: Ce sare Questa ‒ Renato Raffaelli, a cura di: Il libro e il testo. Atti del Convegno Internazionale. urbino, 20‒23 settembre 1982. università degli Studi di urbino, urbino 1984, 243‒293.
Albinia de la Mare: New Research on Humanistic Scribes in Florence. In: Miniatura fiorentina del Rinascimento 1440‒1525. un primo censimento, a cura di Annarosa Garzelli. Vol. 1. Giunta Regionale Toscana ‒ La Nuova Italia Editrice, Firenze 1985, 395‒600.
Tammaro De Marinis: La biblioteca napoletana dei re d’Aragona. vol. II., III., IV. Hoepli, Milano 1947.
Tammaro De Marinis: La biblioteca napoletana dei re d’Aragona. vol. I. Hoepli, Milano 1952.
Nagy Iván és Nyáry Albert szerk.: Magyar diplomacziai emlékek Mátyás király korából 1458‒1490. Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Könyvkiadó-Hivatala, Budapest 1877 (III. köt.), 1878. (IV. köt.)
Conradus Eubel: Hierarchia catholica medii aevi, vol. II., Sive summorum Pontificum, S. R. E. Cardinalium, ecclesiarum antistitum series ab anno 1431 usque ad annum 1503 perducta. Monasterii, sumptibus et tipis librariae Regensburgianae, 1901.
Péter Farbaky: Patrons and Patterns: The Connection between the Aragon Dynasty of Naples and the Hungarian Court of Matthias Corvinus. Radovi Instituta za povijest umjetnosti / Journal of the Institute of Art History, zagreb XLI. 2017, 23–31.
Rózsa FeuerTóth: Art and Humanism in Hungary in the Age of Matthias Corvinus. Ed. Péter Farbaky. (Studia Humanitatis 8.) Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest 1990. [Magyar nyelvű változata: Művészet és humanizmus a korareneszánsz Magyarországon. Mé XXXVI. 1987, 1‒53.]
Bruno Figliuolo: La cultura a Napoli nel secondo Quattrocento. Ritratti di protagonisti. (Fonte e Testi. Raccolta di Storia e Filologia) Forum, udine 1997.
Shulamit FurstenbergLevi: The Accademia Pontaniana. A Model of a Humanist Network. Brill, Leiden‒Boston 2016.
Laurie Fusco ‒ Gino Corti: Lorenzo de’ Medici. Collector and Antiquarian. Cambridge university Press, Cambridge‒New york 2006.
Sante Graciotti ‒ Cesare Vasoli, a cura di: Italia e ungheria all’epoca dell’umanesimo corviniano. (Fondazione Giorgio Cini ‒ Civiltà veneziana. Studi, vol. 45.) Leo S. Olschki, Firenze 1994.
Thomas Haffner: Die Bibliothek des Kardinals Giovanni d’Aragona (1456‒1485). Illuminierte Handschriften und Inkunabeln für einen humanistischen Bibliophilen zwischen Neapel und Rom. Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden 1997.
Anthony Hobson: Humanists and Book-binders. The Origins and Diffusion of the humanistic Bookbinding 1459‒1559 with Census of historiated Plaquette and Medaillon Binding of the Renaissance. Cambridge university Press, Cambridge‒New york‒ Port Chester‒Melbourne‒Sidney 1989.
Mary Hollingsworth – Carol M. Richardson eds.: The Possessions of a Cardinal. Politics, Piety, and Art, 1450‒1700. The Pennsylvania State university Press, university Park (PA) 2009.
Monok István szerk.: A holló jegyében. Fejezetek a Corvinák történetéből. Corvina Kiadó–Országos Széchényi Könyvtár, Budapest 2004.
Edina Zsupán ed.: A Home of Arts and Muses. The Library of King Matthias Corvinus. (De Bibliotheca Corviniana. Supple mentum Corvinianum IV.) Bibliotheca Natio nalis Hungariae, Budapest 2017.
Horváth Richárd: Itineraria regis Matthiae Corvini et reginae Beatricis de Aragonia (1458‒ [1476]‒1490). (História Könyvtár. Kronológiák, adattárak 12.) História‒MTA Történettudományi Intézete, Budapest 2011.
Farbaky Péter ‒ Spekner Enikő ‒ Szende Katalin ‒ Végh András szerk.: Hunyadi Mátyás, a király. Hagyomány és megújulás a királyi udvarban 1458‒1490. (A Budapesti Történeti Múzeum kiállításának katalógusa) Budapesti Történeti Múzeum, Budapest 2008.
Irodalomtörténeti Közlemények
Péter Farbaky – Louis A. Waldman eds.: Italy & Hungary, Humanism and Art in the Early Renaissance [Villa I Tatti series 27.], (Villa I Tatti‒Officina Libraria, Florence–Milan 2011).
Antonín Kalous: Late Medieval Papal Legation. Between the Councils and the Reformation. (Viella History, Art and Humanities Collection 3.) Viella, Roma 2017.
E. Kovács Péter: Magyarország és Nápoly politikai kapcsolatai a Mátyás-korban. In: Fodor Pál ‒ Pálffy Géza ‒ Tóth István György szerk.: Tanulmányok Szakály Ferenc emlékére. MTA TKI Gazdaság- és Társadalomtörténeti Kutatócsoportja, Budapest 2002, 229‒247.
Paul Oskar Kristeller: Francesco Bandini and his consolatory dialogue upon the death of Simone Gondi. In: Uő: Studies in Renaissance Thoughts and Letters. Edizioni di storia e letteratura, Roma 1956, 411‒435.
Paul Oskar Kristeller: An unpublished description of Naples by Francesco Bandini. In: Uő: Studies in Renaissance Thoughts and Letters. Edizioni di storia e letteratura, Roma 1956, 395‒410.
Gennaro Tos cano, a cura di: La Biblioteca Reale di Napoli al tempo della dinastia Aragonese / La Biblioteca Real de Nápoles en tiempos de la dinastia Aragonesa (A nápolyi Castel Nuovóban rendezett kiállítás katalógusa) Consorci de Museus de la Comunitat Valenciana, Valencia 1998.
Magyar Könyvszemle
Martí Tibor: Oklevelek Aragóniai Beatrix hagyatékából. Magyar vonatkozású források a spanyol katonai lovagrendek iratanyagában. Történelmi Szemle LIX. 2017, 491‒523.
Péter Farbaky ‒ Dániel Pócs ‒ Magnolia Scudieri ‒ Lia Brunori ‒ Enikő Spekner ‒ András Végh, cura di: Mattia Corvino e Firenze. Arte e umanesimo alla corte del re di ungheria (A firenzei Museo di San Marco kiállítási katalógusa) Giunti, Firenze 2013.
Fraknói Vilmos: Mátyás király levelei. Külügyi Osztály. I. köt. 1458‒1479. Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, Budapest 1893.; II. köt. 1480‒1490. Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, Budapest 1895.
Művészettörténeti értesítő
Mikó Árpád: Ippolito d’Este esztergomi érseki udvara és a reneszánsz kőfaragás Magyarországon (1487‒1497). AH VI. 1988, 2, 133‒142.
Mikó Árpád: Beatrix királyné psalteriumának helye. Kérdések a Bibliotheca Corvina könyvfestői és könyvkötői körül. Mé LIX. 2010, 2, 261‒273.
Charles Mitchell: Felice Feliciano Anti quarius. Proceedings of the British Academy 47. 1961, 197‒221, Plates XXVI‒XLI.
Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Országos Levéltára
Ernesto Milano, a cura di: Nel segno del corvo. Libri e miniature della biblioteca di Mattia Corvino re d’ungheria (1443‒1490). (A modenai Biblioteca Estense universitaria kiállításának katalógusa) (Il giardino delle Esperidi 16.) Il Bulino, Modena 2002.
Pajorin Klára: Bonfini egyik informátora, Prospero Caffarelli szentszéki követ Magyarországon. In: Jankovics József főszerk., Császtvay Tünde, Csörsz Rumen István, Szabó G. zoltán szerk.: „Nem sűlyed az emberiség!”… Album amicorum Szörényi László LX. születésnapjára. Nyitólap: www.iti.mta.hu/szorenyi60.html. MTA Irodalomtudományi Intézet, Budapest 2007, 267‒273. (letöltés ideje: 2020. március 10.)
Pajorin Klára: Aragóniai Beatrix szerepe Mátyás király irodalmi mecenatúrájában. ItK CXL. 2011, 158‒167.
Enrico Parlato: “Morse lo cardinal de Ra go na”. Cerimoniale e arte funeraria a Santa Sabina e nella Roma di fine Quattrocento. In: Mario Bevilacqua ‒ Daniela Gallavotti Cavallero, a cura di (con un saggio introduttivo di Marcello Fagiolo): L’ Aventino dal Rinas cimento a oggi. Arte e architettura. (I Colli di Roma I.) Artemide, Roma 2010.
Pócs Dániel: urbino, Firenze, Buda ‒ minták és párhuzamok a királyi könyvtár fejlődésében. In: Hunyadi Mátyás, a király kat. 2008, 147‒163.
Pócs, Dániel: White Marble Sculptures from the Buda Castle: Reconsidering Some Facts about an Antique Statue and a Fountain by Verrocchio. In: Italy & Hungary, 2011, 553‒608.
Pócs Dániel: A Didymus-corvina. Hatalmi reprezentáció Mátyás király udvarában. MTA Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont Művészettörténeti Intézet, Budapest 2012.
Ráth György: Arragoniai János. Századok XXIV. 1890, I. 328‒336; II. 414‒424.
Ritoókné Szalay Ágnes: A római föliratok gyűjtői Pannóniában. In: Uő: „Nympha super ripam Danubii”. Tanulmányok a XV–XVI. századi magyarországi művelődés köréből. Szerk. Jankovits László. (Humanizmus és reformáció 28.) Balassi Kiadó, Budapest 2002, 75‒86.
Tibor Klaniczay ‒ Gottfried Stangler ‒Gyöngyi Török hrsg.: Matthias Corvinus und die Renaissance in ungarn 1458‒1541. [Ausstellungskatalog, Schloß Schallaburg] Katalog des Niederösterreichischen Landesmuseums (Neue Folge Nr. 118.), Wien 1982.
Jonathan J. G. Alexander ed.: The Painted Page. Italian Renaissance Book Illumination 1450‒1550. Prestel Verlag, London‒Munich 1994.
Gennaro Toscano: Gaspare da Padova e la diffusione del linguaggio mantegnesco. In: Rodolfo Signorini, Viviana Rebonato e Sara Tammaccaro, a cura di; con la collaborazione di Elga Disperdi e Ines Mazzola: Andrea Mantegna. Impronta del genio. Convegno inter nazionale di studi. Padova‒Verona‒ Mantova, 8, 9, 10 novembre 2006. Leo S. Olschki, Firenze 2010, Tomo I., 363‒396.
C. Tóth Norbert: Az esztergomi székesés társaskáptalanok archontológiája 1100‒1543. (Subsidia ad historiam medii aevi Hungariae inquirendam 9.) Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Magyar Medievisztikai Kutatócsoportja, Budapest 2019.
C. Tóth Norbert ‒ Horváth Richárd ‒ Neumann Tibor ‒ Pálosfalvi Tamás: Magyarország világi archontológiája 1458‒1526. I. Főpapok és bárók. (Magyar Történelmi Emlékek ‒ Adattárak). MTA Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont, Történettudományi Intézet, Budapest 2016.
Paola Venturelli: Milano / ungheria. Orefici e oreficerie tra Francesco da Castello, Caradosso e Bianca Maria Sforza. Arte Lombarda 139. 2003/3, 110‒117.
Bernardino Zambotti: Diario ferrarese dall’anno 1476 sino al 1504, ed. Giuseppe Pardi. (Rerum italicarum scriptores, raccolta degli storici italiani dal cinquecento al millecinquecento, XXIV, 7.) Nicola zanichelli, Bologna 1934‒1937.
Zsupán Edina: A Beatrix-psalterium geneziséhez. Mé 59. 2010, 233‒260.
Zsupán Edina: A Corvina könyvtár budai műhelye. Az Országos Széchényi Könyvtár kiállításának eredményei. Századok 153. 2019, 997‒1036.
Zsupán Edina: A budai műhely. In: „Az ország díszére” kat. 2020, 21‒62.