Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 109-112. (Budapest, 1985)

A TERMÉSZETTUDOMÁNYOK ÉS A MEDICINA A RENESZÁNSZ ÉS A REFORMÁCIÓ KORÁBAN - Csapodi, Csaba: Orvosi és természettudományi corvinák (angol nyelven)

King Matthias Corvinus, with the establishment and development of his library, aimed at achieving the ,,complete library". The idea sounds strange to modern ears. For a library as we conceive of it now is never something definitely accomplished but a constantly renewing institution gathering and yielding for public use the latest achievements; the more up-to-date its stock, the more valuable it is. The humanist of the Renaissance, however, accorded the greatest importance not to the creations of his own age or of the times to come but to those of the eternal ideal, classical Antiquity. The task was to preserve through copying all that happened to survive and could be reached. Theoretically at least, it was conceivable that once all this would be collected or approached to as far as possible. Compared to this, contemporary literature could be of second rank only, perhaps some panegyrics in order to gain the goodwill of a Maecenas, but mainly commentaries on, analyses of or epistolary disputes over ancient works. The idea of the ,,complete library" as a goal is no later concluded hypothesis. A librarian of King Matthias, Bartolomeo Fonzio writes himself in one of his letters that in keeping with the king's request, he was taking pains that the library ,,should be accomplished in the quickest and easiest way".

5 Pope Nicholas V. founder of the Vatican Library had been lead by the same intention, as early as in 1450 he aimed at establishing a library that would contain all the Latin and Greek authors.

4 Even the model of the Corvinian Library, Bishop János Vitéz's library was referred to by the Florence book trader Vespasiano da Bisticci with the remark that there were hardly any books in Latin his library did not possess.

5 From classical Antiquity, however, after the centuries of the so-believed Dark Ages, not only literary, grammatical or rhetorical works had survived, but a lot more out of the wide range of sciences: philosophy, theology, law, geography, mathematics, physics, medicine, astronomy, military art, etc.

. Accordingly, it was not some special scientific interest but the concept of the „uorao universale" that brought together the scientific stock of the Corvinian Library. One point, however, should be added to this statement. And that is about astronomy on which a special stress was layed. Both ancient and contemporary authors had their own prestige in this field. The reason for that was that the man of the Renaissance firmly believed the stars had the power to determine or at least to forecast the human lot. It was advisable to analyze horoscopes, to consult the stars before starting a major enterprize like war, e.g.. The making of horoscopes, just because their role was taken seriously, required exact data of astronomy. Thus in a strange way, a custom of superstition, a misbelief truely contributed to the development of a branch of science, astronomy. The motive was astrology, no doubt, but astronomy was very seriously cultivated as well. The investigation of what the role of King Matthias' Hungary was in the development of European astronomy is still a debt of the history of science, but it is true that at that time this science had important centres at Várad, Esztergom, perhaps at Pécs, but first of all in Buda. The poet Janus Pannonius, too, had an astronomic interest, but mainly János Vitéz, preceptor of the young Matthias and later his advisor, possessed a thorough knowledge of astronomy; eminent astronomers worked at his court at Várad and Esztergom and following him in Buda and, respectively, many a famous astronomers were connected with these places. The great astronomer of Vienna, Georg Pauerbach dedicated his works to Vitéz, among them mainly the famous , ,Várad tabulations" and the , ,Canones pro compositione et usu gnomonis geometrici". No doubt that these works were possessed by the Corvinian Library, too, even if no copy survived the destruction of nine tenth of the stock. There were several works, partly dedicated 3

Fontius, Bartholomaus: Epistolarum libri. Ed. Ladislaus Juhász. Budapest 1931. 36 p. 4 Quinto centenario della Biblioteca Vaticana. Miniature del rinascimento. Città del Vaticano 1950. 11 p. 5 Vespasiano da Bisticci: Le vite. Ed. critica con introduzione e commento di Aulo Greco. Firenze 1970. I. 319-320 p.