Philostratus Flavius: Opera

Philostratus Flavius: Opera

King Matthias Corvinus (23 February 1443 – 6 April 1490) was one of the most powerful rulers of Renaissance Europe as King of Hungary and Croatia. Educated in Italian and a great admirer of Italian renaissance art, he collected a library consisting of about 3,000 volumes called the Bibliotheca Corviniana. The Codex Philostratus Philostratus Flavius – Philostratus Lemnius Opera Cod. Lat. 417. (Florence, 1487–1490, parchment) is a piece of this collection, which contains the works of the sophist Philostratus of Athens and of his nephew (3rd c. AD.) In the book we find the curriculum vitae of ancient heroes and philosophers, letters, and the description of an art collection in Naples.

A Library Worthy of a King

The Philostratus Corvina is one of the most finely decorated codices of the Corvina Library. Its importance is unique: the translation, dedication, the splendid manuscript itself, from the first letter till the last brush stroke was created for King Matthias. The court historian Antonio Bonfini translated the work of the Athenian Sophist Philostratos (3rd century AD) and his nephew, from Greek into Latin in the spring of 1487. The illustrations were made in Florence, in the workshop of Boccardino il Vecchio. The manuscript reached Buda from Florence in Matthias’ lifetime, but the leather binding with architectural ornamentation bears the arms of his successor, Vladislaus II. In 1513, the Corvina Library was bought from Vladislaus II by the Viennese humanist Johannes Gremper, then finding its way to Johannes Cuspinianus, and later to Johannes Fabri. It was transferred from the Austrian National Library to the National Széchényi Library per the framework of the Venice Agreement in 1932.

Incredible Double-Page Depictions

All seven of the carefully arranged, predominantly red, blue, and gilded diptych-like double-pages are covered in finely executed miniatures: even the margins of pages, usually kept white, are painted in yellowish green with lace-like gilding. On the left-hand side you can read the contents index of the codex in the form of a monumental inscription: the gilded bronze sheet with embossed letters is in the frame of a white stone niche. On the pedestal of the building there is the imitation of an antique relief depicting a fight among sea gods. On the left, King Matthias’s antique-like medallion portrait appears surrounded by white putti and hanging arms, having the portraits of Nero and Hadrian, the two Roman emperors especially predisposed to Greek culture, on his two sides. (The caption in the medal calls Matthias, King of Hungary and Bohemia and Prince of Austria.) In the middle of the other side, there is the imitation of an oval bronze relief, showing Apollo, Olympus and Marsyas, modelled on a famous antique carnelian-intaglio (an engraved semi-precious gemstone) in Lorenzo de’ Medici’s art collection. There is a triumphal procession on the initial of the page on the right-hand side. The tiny crowned figure on the chariot has been identified as Matthias inter alia, while in other cases as his son János Corvin. The prologue actually describes the triumph celebrating the conquest of Wiener Neustadt. Both pages have Matthias’s coat of arms at the bottom (on the right, the shield also features Austria’s silver-swathed crest against a red background.) The ornaments on the margins feature the royal emblems (a beehive, a barrel, an hour-glass, a dragon and a well).