Miscellanea Codicum Graecorum Vindobonensium II

This study results from the research focus of paleography and text tradition of the Division of Byzantine Studies of the Institute for Medieval Research of the OeAW. It analyses the detectable remaining stock of the legendary Greek library of King Matthias Corvinus (1443–1490) in the Austrian National Library. In contrast to the Latin manuscripts of the Bibliotheca Corvina, the reconstruction of the Greek fundus confronts its research with a big problem as these manuscripts contain neither the usual ornamental pages nor the royal coat of arms nor were they commissioned in scriptoria, but are preserved from various centuries in very different appearance. Only two cases are a sure due to the typical Corvinian cover. In addition to a thorough analysis of the manuscripts which can be assigned to the library on the basis of reports of the humanists at the turn from the 15th to the 16th century, the impact of the burgeoning transalpine Greek humanism on Viennese scholars and their access to libraries with Greek stock is investigated. This helps also to construct a panorama of Greek studies in Vienna in the late 15th and early 16th century. The exponents of this new direction of bilingual humanism are studied in view of their education, their editorial activities, their (private) library stocks and their access to manuscripts (or prints). This offers an insight into the effort of competing with the Italian bilingual humanism. However, the lack of Graeca north the Alps was a serious problem. In analyzing theses sources the work is devoted to an aspect of the history of the University of Vienna, too, namely the onset of Greek studies in the 16th century.