Could we gain new insight into the discovery of the Leuven Codex?
The Rosenthal and Olschki families in the 19th–21st centuries
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18349/MagyarNyelv.2025.3.332Keywords:
Leuven Codex, Lament of Mary, Jacques Rosenthal, Leo S. OlschkiAbstract
This paper aims to promote further inquiry into the following issue: Where did the Leuven Codex, containing the earliest surviving Hungarian poem, the Old Hungarian Lament of Mary, hide before its discovery in the 20th century? The first well-established event in the history of this codex is that, in 1910, it was purchased in Toscana by Jacques Rosenthal, an antiquarian from Munich. In 1922, the book was transferred to the library of the University of Leuven (hence the name of the codex). Finally, since 1982, it has been stored in the National Széchényi Library in Budapest, under catalogue number MNy 79. – A new avenue of research may be opened by a monograph presenting the history of the Rosenthal family (Angermair et al. 2002). It describes the extraordinary antiquarian activities of Jacques Rosenthal and his descendants, including friendly and familial relations (dating back to the beginning of the 20th century) between Jacques Rosenthal and Leo Olschki, an antiquarian from Florence. This Florence link undoubtedly deserves close inspection for gaining new insight into the history of the codex. By sharing key information about the Rosenthal and Olschki families, the paper aims to give new impetus to research on the codex’s history prior to 1910.
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