The basis of this work is the handbook of Casuistry (administration of confession) written by the Dominican friar Bartholomaeus Pisanus (1262–1347). Nicolaus de Ausmo complemented the handbook in the 15th century and under each case (casus) or category of Canon Law, he marked Bartholomaeus’s text with a letter ‘a’ and his own with a ‘b’.
The volume is one of the few printed books of the Corvina Library. Only the initial page is decorated (with Ferrara style illumination), and the binding was made in Italy with blind embossing. On the bottom of the title-page we can see King Matthias’s coat of arms on the right, and the coat of arms of the Rovere family on the left, with a golden oak tree of five roots on a blue shield. Upon the shield, a Papal crown (tiara) indicates that it belongs to the Pope of the family: Sixtus IV, King Matthias’s contemporary, was born as Francesco della Rovere and reigned between 1471‒84.
We can only make assumptions as to how the manuscript arrived at Buda. Perhaps it was a gift of the Pope for King Matthias. (Edina Zsupán. The entry written for the guide to the exhibition was made on the basis of Miklós Janzsó’s description below: The CORVINA LIBRARY and the Buda Workshop. Exhibition Catalog. (Publication in progress.) Budapest: NSZL, 2019, Cat. I4)
Shelfmark: Inc. 197. Country: Hungary City: Budapest Keeper location: National Széchényi Library Author: Nicolaus de Ausmo Content: Supplementum, 1473, Wendelin von Speyer, Venice Writing medium: parchment Crest: 1. Coat-of-arms of Pope Sixtus IV; 2. King Matthias' coat-of-arms Possessor, provenience: The book got into National Széchényi Library as a present from the Library of the Franciscan Convention in Pozsony (today's Bratislava) in the first half of the 19th century. Binding: original, blind-tooled Renaissance leather binding (made in Buda?) Language of corvina: Latin Condition: Restored: NSZL, 1980 Hungarian translation(s) of work(s) included in the corvina: None
