Gothic Script and Humanistic Fashion in Fifteenth-Century Oradea: The Palaeography of John Vitéz’s Book of Letters (Vienna, ÖNB, COD. 431)

Vienna, ÖNB, Cod. 431 transmits letters written by John Vitéz, bishop of Oradea (1445–1465), collected in this city – and possibly copied – by the canon Paul of Iwanich, in 1451. The paper studies the palaeography of the manuscript’s opening pages, which display the attempt to abandon late Gothic angularity in favour of the rounded aspect of humanistic minuscule, in order to meet the taste of the book’s author and sponsor. However, the scribe does not manage to write an antiqua, and thus the book remains a Gothic product with humanistic aspirations.

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