Legends of King Matthias: How the Wall Paintings of Astromoners Became Observatories

Abstract

In the light of later tragic events, the age of King Matthias I seemed brighter, the deeds of his courtiers looked more significan in the eyes of subsequent generations. According to scholarship and popular literature, there were several working astronomical observatories in the country at that time, and humanists in the court of Matthias have been presented as pre-Copernican thinkers. In this paper, I will attempt to show the error of such beliefs and to find their sources. Contemporary travellers did not mention any observatories in the Castle of Buda. According to the 1591 description by Václav Vratistlav, however, two painted astronomers were visible on the wall of the library; these were later changed into observatories (Sternwarten) in the German translation. The Hungarian public became acquainted with the writing of the Czech traveller through this German translation, so they read about observatories rather than astronomers.