FRAGMENTE DE SCRISORI PICCOLOMINIENE ÎNTR-UN MANUSCRIS DIN SECOLUL AL XV-LEA AFLAT ÎN CUSTODIA BIBLIOTECII BATTHYANEUM DIN ALBA IULIA1
EXCERPTS OF LETTERS BELONGING TO ENEA SILVIO PICCOLOMINI FROM A 15TH CENTURY MANUSCRIPT KEPT IN THE BATTHYANEUM LIBRARY IN ALBA IULIA

Summary/Abstract: In the important fund of manuscripts kept at the Bathyaneum Library in Alba Iulia there is a manuscript (12 sheets) which contains several letters written or received by Enea Silvio Piccolomini. There are 11 in number, but out of the last one only the sender and the recipient were preserved. We were able to identify them entirely with the help of incunabula, early or modern editions containing Enea Silvio Piccolomini’s correspondence. The lack of marginal notes or any notes whatsoever wouldn’t allow us to discover the scribe who copied these letters. The cover, belonging to the late nineteenth century, wouldn’t give us either any information in this regard. Of interest can be its provenance which until recently was suspected to be of Slovak origin, from the Spiš area, in Levoča. The manuscript in question is on the list of books purchased by Count Batthyány Ignác in the eighteenth century in Levoča, but the priest who drafted the list included it among the prints under the title: Opera Poetica Aeneae Sylvii M.S. During the study, we tried to discover the reason behind the title, given the fact that Piccolomini has never written a book bearing this title. Research led us to a manuscript whose incipit is: “[...] ars poetica [...]”. Hence the title given in the list from Levoča. It is interesting that the two manuscripts are now placed next to each other, evidence of this being the library signatures: I 45, I 46. The manuscript “Aeneas Silvius de Piccolominibus, Epistolae familiares […]” is the only one kept at Batthyaneum Library, which also houses some other works of the rich literary activity of Enea Silvio Piccolomini, also known as Pope Pius II (1458-1464).

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