820, and received its name from having been first
occupied by a body of monks coming from Corbie in Picardy. The bones of
St Vitus, the patron saint of Saxony, were removed thither according to
legend in 836, but apart from this attraction, Corvey became the centre
of Christianity in Saxony and a nursery of classical studies. The abbot
was a prince of the Empire, and Corvey was made a bishopric in 1783. In
1803 the abbey was secularized, in 1815 its lands were given to Prussia,
and in 1822 they were bestowed on Victor Amadeus, landgrave of
Hesse-Rotenburg, by whom they were bequeathed, in 1834, to Prince Victor
of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfurst, duke of Ratibor. The abbey, which is now
used as a residence, possesses a magnificent library of 150,000 volumes
especially rich in old illustrated works, though the ancient collection
due to the literary enthusiasm of the Benedictines is no longer extant.
Here in 1517 the manuscript of the five first books of the _Annals_ of
Tacitus was discovered. Here Widukind wrote his _Res gestae Saxonicae_.
Here, also, the librarian and poet Hoffmann von Fallersleben lived and
worked. The _Annales Corbejenses 648-1148_ of the monks can be read in
the _Monumenta Germaniae historica_, Band iii. The _Chronicon
Corbejense_, published by A. C. Wedekind in 1823, has been declared by
S. Hirsch and Waitz (_Kritische Prufung_, Berlin, 1839) to be a forgery.

See P. Wigand, _Geschichte der Abtei Korvey_ (Hoxter, 1819); and M.
Meyer, _Zur altern Geschichte Corveys und Hoxters_ (Paderborn, 1893).

CORVINUS, JANOS [JOHN] (1473-1504), illegitimate son of Matthias
Hunyadi, king of Hungary, and one Barbara, supposed to be the daughter
of a burgess of Breslau. He took his name from the raven (_corvus_) in
his father's escutcheon. Matthias originally intended him for the
Church, but on losing all hope of offspring from his consort Queen
Beatrice, determined, towards the end of his life, to make the youth his
successor on the throne. He loaded him with honours and riches, till he
was by far the wealthiest magnate in the land. He publicly declared him
his successor, created him a prince with vast apanages in Silesia, made
the commandants of all the fortresses in the kingdom take an oath of
allegiance to him, and tried to arrange a marriage for him with Bianca
Maria Sforza of Milan, a project which was frustrated by the intrigues
of Queen Beatrice. Matthias also intended to make the recognition of
Janos a