Hungary

The Hungarian collection encompasses approximately 70,000 volumes. Presumably due to the geographical proximity and the common Hungarian-Bavarian history, it assumes a special position among the holdings of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. The collection grows by around 1,000 monographs and approximately 200 current periodicals annually. Around 70 percent of these volumes are from Hungary and 30 percent from the adjoining countries and from the rest of Europe and the world. The major part of the holdings still consists of printed materials; in addition there are a number of manuscripts, archive materials on microfilm, and, since around the year 2000, also databases. The proportion of less than 1 percent of the new acquisitions that is constituted by electronic journals and books is currently still comparatively low. The focus of the Hungarian collection, like that of the overall library, is on humanities.

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Deliberatio supra hymnum trium puerorum  (Clm 6211)
Digital version | Manuscript in BSB DISCOVER!

The first Hungarian Bible translation of the year 1466, also referred to as "Hussite Bible" or "Munich codex", is the oldest specimen of the collection of Hungarian manuscripts (Cod.hung. 1). Originally belonging to Widmanstetter's library, the manuscript formed part of the holdings of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at the time of its foundation. The Bible is freely accessible in digitized form today. A further rarity connected to Hungary comes from the personal collection of the humanist Hartmann Schedel: The collective manuscript Clm 442 contains the handwritten copy of the first work printed in Hungary "Chronica Hungarorum" (1473).

Hussite Bible  (Cod.hung. 1)
Digital version | Manuscript in BSB DISCOVER!

Chronica Hungarorum (handwritten copy)  (Clm 442)
Manuscript in in BSB DISCOVER!

The manuscripts of the Hungarian King Mathias Corvinus (1443 – 1490) form part of the outstanding pieces of the collection. The Bibliotheca Corviniana was one of the largest libraries of its time. After the death of the Hungarian king and the conquest of Buda by the Ottomans in 1526, the library was taken apart and scattered. Out of this library, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek holds eight so-called "Corvinen", manuscripts with leather or silk bindings, which are predominantly splendidly illuminated with the coat of arms of Mathias Corvinus among other things.

Celsus, Aulus Cornelius: De medicina libri VIII. Florence, around 1465.
Digital version | Manuscript in BSB DISCOVER!, classification mark: Clm 69

Beda ‹Venerabilis›; Seneca, Lucius Annaeus: De natura rerum liber. Naturales quaestiones libri VII. Buda, around 1490.
Digital version | Manuscript in BSB DISCOVER!, classification mark: Clm 175

Agathias: Historiarum libri I – V. Rome, 1483/ 84.
Digital version | Manuscript in BSB DISCOVER!, classification mark: Clm 294

Demosthenes: Orationes [i.a.]. Florence, around 1465.
Digital version | Manuscript in BSB DISCOVER!, classification mark: Clm 310

Thomas ‹Seneca › : Historiae Bononiensis libri IV. Carmina ad Galeatium Marescottum. Ferrara, around 1460.
Digital version | Manuscript in BSB DISCOVER!, classification mark: Clm 341

Aristeas: Epistula ad Philocratem. Buda, around 1480.
Digital version | Manuscript in BSB DISCOVER!, classification mark: Clm 627

Polybius: Historiae libri I – V. Ab excessu divi Marci libri VIII. Aethiopica. Constantinople, 1st third of the 15th century.
Digital version | Manuscript in BSB DISCOVER!, classification mark: Cod.graec. 157

Porphyrius; Plotinus: De vita Plotini. Enneades I – VI. [S. l.], 1464/ 1465.
Digital version | Manuscript in BSB DISCOVER!, classification mark: Cod.graec. 449

The "Chronica Hungarorum" of the historian Johannes de Thurocz (* around 1435) of the year 1488 is a valuable incunabulum.

Chronica Hungarorum  (2 Inc.c.a. 2125)
Digital version | Printed version in BSB DISCOVER!

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