Seizing the Hungarian throne at the age of fifteen, Matthias Corvinus, the "Raven King,” was an effervescent presence on the fifteenth-century stage. A successful warrior and munificent art patron, he sought to leave as symbols of his strategic and humanist ambitions a strong, unified country, splendid palaces, and the most magnificent library in Christendom. But Hungary, invaded by Turkey after Matthias's death in 1490, yielded its treasures, and the Raven King’s exquisite library of two thousand volumes, witness to a golden cultural age, was dispersed first across Europe and then the world.
The quest to recover this collection of sumptuously illuminated scripts provoked and tantalized generations of princes, cardinals, collectors, and scholars and imbued Hungarians with the mythical conviction that the restoration of the lost library would seal their country's rebirth. In this thrilling and absorbing account, drawing on a wealth of original sources in several languages, Marcus Tanner tracks the destiny of the Raven King and his magnificent bequest, uncovering the remarkable story of a life and library almost lost to history.
"Tanner has a shrewd sense of character and a vivid eye for detail, and he succeeds in bringing to life the politics of Matthias''s reign, with all its dynastic in-fighting and geopolitical jockeying for position."—Noel Malcolm, The Telegraph
(Noel Malcolm The Telegraph )
About the Author
Marcus Tanner is a journalist and writer, editor of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, and a leader-writer for the Independent. His previous books include Croatia, Ireland's Holy Wars, and The Last of the Celts, all published by Yale University Press.
Product Details
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Yale University Press; First Edition edition (July 1, 2008)
I had never heard about King Matthias Corvinus, nor of his valuable Hungarian library of rare manuscripts, so I was eager to read this. However, I found it often became boring and much too repetitive. There are too many detours as we get the mini-biographies of just about every tangential person possible. Once we get to the eyewitness descriptions of what people actually saw when they entered the vandalized rooms, it becomes interesting. But I often grew tired of the long lists of Latin titles and the gossipy political intrigues of people arranging marriages and lining up heirs for thrones. I would rather have read this as a short magazine article, not as a full-length book.
There is a generous section of black-and-white pictures, but with all of the description of how beautiful these colorful manuscripts are, I would have preferred to see them in color.
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This review is from: The Raven King: Matthias Corvinus and the Fate of His Lost Library (Hardcover)
I enjoyed this book by the well-informed Marcus Tanner. It will be of interest to those seeking information on the history of Hungary and surrounding lands as they emerged from medieval times; the Ottoman Empire's clash with Europe; King Corvinus; and, most of all, the formation and eventual dispersal of one of the world's great libraries.
Last spring I visited Vienna and happened to stay at the "Corvinus Hotel Pension." I now know who Corvinus was and how this Hungarian king came to be tied to Vienna, so many centuries ago.
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This review is from: The Raven King: Matthias Corvinus and the Fate of His Lost Library (Hardcover)
Untidily written and edited; no attention to diacritical marks / spelling in Hungarian- / German-language words and citations (suggesting a slapdash approach), and imprecise garrulity that is content to describe Matthias Corvinus as an "alpha-male". Not a book to keep.
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