The watercolors displaying corvinas, painted by Gyula Végh, art historian, book collector, book historian, graphic artist and painter, President of the Hungarian Bibliophile Society and Director of the Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest, were made on the commission of József Fitz, onetime Director-General of National Széchényi Library, NSZL (1934–1945). Gyula Végh was working for months in the building of the Hungarian National Museum (where NSZL had been based until 1985), until an outstanding volume of the manuscript series entitled Régi magyar kötések (Early Hungarian Book Bindings) was made, under the title Corvina-kötések (Corvina Bindings). In his work, the corvinas were grouped according to the type of bindings: velvet, silk and leather. Not all the books were drawn but, in addition to the volumes owned by National Széchényi Library and ELTE University Library, illustrations were made of some corvinas kept in Munich, Wolfenbüttel and Yale University Library. In addition to the quality watercolors, this international outlook added a special value to the compilation.
Gyula Végh and the Corvinas by Endre Lipthay (pdf)
