Breviary of Matthias Corvinus

This monumental Breviary of 597 folios is among the finest of the numerous books made for the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus (1443-1490) in the late 15th century. The Renaissance royal court at Buda (today Budapest) was the earliest and most important outside Italy. The codices so highly prized by Matthias were produced partly in his own workshop in Buda and also in Florence.

Rather than as a collector’s item for the Bibliotheca Corviniana, the Breviary seems to have been conceived for liturgical use in the royal castle chapel. It was illuminated by Attavante degli Attavanti. Apparently the illuminator was not able to finish the book during Matthias’s lifetime, this might be the reason why it remained in Italy and became the property of a member of the Trivulzio family.

The manuscript contains 8 particularly opulently painted folios, and rich floral decoration on nearly all pages. The frontispiece miniature (on folio 7v) in the first major section of the book, the Temporal, shows the title in gold Capitalis script on a blue ground. The black marbled columns and pilasters of the aedicula with the richly decorated capitals and paneled barrel vault are derived from the formal vocabulary of early Renaissance art.