Isocrates: Oratio

During the century of Humanism, several translations were made into Latin from the speeches of Isocrates (436‒338), orator of Athens. From the first work included in this codex, the speech to Demonicus, we know of seven translations altogether, three of which were made by unidentified authors. The first translator was Guarino Veronese in 1407 who completed his work in Constantinople, but the most widely known version became that of Lapo di Castiglionchio (1436), who as a matter of fact, made use also of Guarino’s text.
The copyist was the same as the scribe of the manuscript with Janus Pannonius’s translation and the supplement of the Regiomontanus Corvina of Vienna. The manuscript must be regarded of poor quality as some faulty parchment leaves were used for its production and the scribe had to avoid the holes when copying. The illumination, however, is a rich masterpiece of the “First Heraldic Painter”, from one and a half centuries later. The ornamental border with purple base and gold leaf reflects the influence of the works of Attavante degli Attavanti of Florence, a regular supplier of the Corvina Library. (Edina Zsupán)

Source: The Corvina Library and the Buda Worskhop: [National Széchényi Library, November 6, 2018 –February 9, 2019] A Guide to the Exhibition; introduction and summary tables: Edina Zsupán; object descriptions: Edina Zsupán, Ferenc Földesi; English translation: Ágnes Latorre, Budapest: NSZL, 2018, p. 206

DATA SHEET

Shelfmark: Cod. Lat. 430.
Country: Hungary
City: Budapest
Keeper location: National Széchényi Library
Author: Isocrates
Content: Orationes
Translator: Lapus Castelliunculus; Iohannes Petrus Lucanus
Writing medium: parchment
Number of sheets: 40 fol.
Sheet size: 222 × 144 mm
Place of writing: Hungary (Buda? Esztergom?)
Date of writing: ca. 1470
Scriptor: Probably a Hungarian scriptor who had worked in the vicinity of Iohannes Vitéz and Regiomontanus (from the same scriptor: Vienna, ÖNB, Cod. 44. ff. 135v–136r; Vienna, ÖNB, Cod. 205.
Illuminator: "first" heraldic painter
Place of illumination: Buda
Date of illumination: late 1480s
Crest: King Matthias' Hungarian and Bohemian royal coat-of-arms, "first" heraldic painter, Buda, late 1480s
Possessor, provenience: Johannes Fabri, Bishop of Vienna (comp. manuscript entries); St. Nicolas College of the University of Vienna (1540); University of Vienna; Imperial Court Library (1756); in line with the Venice Agreement (signed on November 27, 1932), it was returned to National Széchényi Library.
Binding: secondary binding (van Sweeten, Vienna, 1753): parchment coated paper
Language of corvina: Latin
Hungarian translation(s) of work(s) included in the corvina: Iszokratész attikai rétor művei / görög eredetiből ford. Rokay Zoltán; Óbecse : Lux Color Print. : Szulik Alapítvány, 2011-2015