IV
THE RENAISSANCE
Hungary was one of the first countries to be stirred by the Renaissance. For this she was indebted to one of the greatest men of that great age, King Matthias Corvinus, who was born in 1443, and who reigned from 1458 until his death in 1490.
Matthias, who had been brought up by eminent humanists, was a thorough Renaissance monarch, like his Italian contemporaries, Lorenzo the Magnificent, and the rulers of Urbino and Milan, Federigo Montefeltre and Lodovico Moro. They were all passionately fond of the new artistic luxury, and highly prized every relic of classical times, fragments of the glorified Greek age, as well as the elaborately illustrated vellum books, some of which cost more than a picture by Raphael. Italy was then the centre of culture, so King Matthias endeavoured to create a channel through which that culture might make its way to Hungary. In view of that effort we may call King Matthias the first modern Hungarian. All that was most eminent and characteristic in his father, John Hunyadi, is suggestive of the Middle Ages, white Matthias is a new type—the Renaissance ruler; between him and his father there is the gulf which separates one historical epoch from another. Naturally, even in Renaissance times, there still persisted elements belonging to the Middle Ages, just as with the rosy light of dawn there is
