Astronomy in Renaissance Hungary

The Corvinian Library probably contained 2500 works. See Csapodi Csaba , Corvinian Library (Budapest, 1973).

Including those by Aristotle, Avicenna and Ptolemy.

(a) Canones LXIII in tabulam primi mobilis cum tabula, cum dedicatione ad regem Matthiam. (b) Epitome Almagesti, seu Megales syntaxeos Ptolemaei cum praefatione ad cardinalem Bessarion. (c) Tabulae directionum et profectionum Iohanni Vitéz archiep. Strigonensi dedicata.

Johannes Vitéz invited Georg Peurbach to undertake astronomical work in Hungary (see Zinner Ernst , Leben und Wirken des Joh. Miller von Königsberg genannt Regiomontanus (Osnabrück, 1968), 112). Peurbach sent an astronomical instrument to Vitéz and the German astronomer dedicated his work Tabulae Varadiensis to him (ibid., 42). There was also contact between Regiomontanus and Vitéz: Regiomontanus dedicated his Tabulae directionum to Vitéz, and there is a Manilius codex in the Vatican Library (Codex Palatina 1711) that preserves Vitéz's original marginal notes. These lines gave evidence of Vitéz's astronomical interest.

See ref. 3, (a) and (c).

Birkenmajer Aleksander , “Marcin Bylica”, Studia Copernicana, iv (1972), 533–47.

Joannis Regiomontani Opera collectanea (Osnabrück, 1972), 511–30.

Császár Mihály , Academia Istropolitana (Pozsony, 1914).

National Széchényi Library, Budapest, Codex 275.

Ilkusch's letter to a Hungarian prelate in Teleki József , A Hunyadiak kora Magyarországon (The age of the Hunyadis in Hungary), xii (Pest, 1857), 282–4.

Ábel Jenőo , Egyetemeink a középkorban (Hungarian universities in the Middle Ages) (Budapest, 1880), 89.

Ibid.

Birkenmajer , op. cit. (ref. 6), 535.

This copy was bought by the famous Hungarian writer Ferenc Kazinczy. Detailed information can be found in: Kazinczy levelezése (The correspondence of Ferenc Kazinczy), xxii (Budapest, 1907), 139–41.

“… cum apud me hiis temporibus non sint, quae Tuae Maiestati fore iocundiora michi persuadeam.” Georg Podjebrad (1420–71) was King of Bohemia from 1458. In 1468 Matthias I made war on Podjebrad and he was proclaimed King of Bohemia on 3 May 1469. Hostilities continued until Georg died on 22 March 1471.

“… circa medium Ursae maioris visus est …”.

“… parvus corpore…”.

“Constat autem omnibus, qui ipsum viderunt, quod erat corpore parvus, imo minor quam aliqua ex septem stellis in Ursa maiore constitutis …”.

“… caudam versus polum porrigens …”.

“Sed cum pedes anteriores dictae Ursae nostris temporibus circa principium Leonis per numerorum tabulas reperiantur …”.

“Nam quum materia ex aqua cometis generari solet a superficie … aeris regionem elevatur …”.

Mészáros István , A Szalkai-kódex és a XV. századvégi sárospataki iskola (Budapest, 1972). Jan Glogów (1445–1507), Polish astronomer, taught astronomy and astrology at Cracow university. He exerted great influence on the Hungarian students, who were studying in this city at that time. His “Introductorium astronomiae” was published in Cracow in 1514.

“De inundatione”.

“Threnos, de morte Barbarae matris”, Jani Pannonii opera latine et Hungarice, ed. by Kovács Sánor V. (Budapest, 1972), 334.