With gloves on – leafing through two original corvinas

Closing date of NSZL’s grandiose corvina exhibition entitled The Corvina Library and the Buda Workshop will be followed by a bonus day, Sunday February 10, 2019. On this day, the exhibition will be open until 8 p.m., and visitors will have the opportunity to take part in a unique event. At 4 p.m. on Sunday February 10, the safety glass will be lifted from two exquisite codices of the exhibition. In the presence of visitors, curator Edina Zsupán and Judit Lauf, one of the research fellows of the exhibition will leaf through the more than 500-year-old volumes.

One of the chosen pieces will be one of the most beautiful surviving items of the Hungarian Middle Ages, the splendid, richly illuminated Breviary of Domonkos Kálmáncsehi, provost of Székesfehérvár, Hungary, while the other one will be the famous Philostratos corvina. The latter had been one of the most unique volumes of King Matthias’ royal library. A sensational new result was revealed only recently, during research carried out before setting up this exhibition, that the book had been made in Buda, Hungary instead of Florence – as it has been believed before –, with the powerful contribution of court historian Antonio Bonfini. Illuminator of the codex was Boccardino il Vecchio of Florence who must have visited the royal court of the Hungarian king.

During the exciting event, the curator will show it in the codex exactly what signs have led to this surprising conclusion. Visitors will be able to follow up, step by step, the process of this exciting investigation.

Preliminary registration is required to attend this program. You can register at the following e-mail address: pr@oszk.hu.

The event in pictures