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The last time the Museum of Fine Arts exhibited the German drawings in its collection was over half a century ago. The present show coincides with the completion of the scientific catalogue of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century German drawings, containing the results of the latest research on the works in the collection.00The volume contains entries describing 445 German drawings (including a few Swiss compositions and one work of Bohemian origin) from the fifteenth, sixteenth, and, in a few instances, from the early seventeenth centuries. Works dating from after 1600 are included in the catalogue only if the artist creating them was born before or in 1575. The earliest work dates from c. 1410?15, the latest one from c. 1629.00The core of the Collection of Prints and Drawings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest came from the Esterházy collection, which was purchased by the Hungarian state in 1870. The world-famous assemblage of several hundred paintings and thousands of prints and drawings was accumulated by Prince Nikolaus Esterházy (1765?1833). Besides acquiring paintings and prints, the prince also wished to bring together a well-balanced collection of high-quality drawings representing every art historical period and almost all the art schools of Europe. Three quarters of the drawings in this catalogue come from the princely collection. In the first decade of the nineteenth century, Esterházy managed to lay his hands on several outstanding groups of drawings from first-class art collections. Where German drawings are concerned, his most important purchase was made in Nuremberg around 1804 from the art dealer Johann Friedrich Frauenholz (1758? 1822). Originally belonging to Paulus II Praun (1548?1616), a silk merchant in Nuremberg, this ensemble of several hundred, mainly sixteenth century drawings was made up mostly of German and Italian works, with some Netherlandish pieces included.00Exhibition: Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary (20.06. - 18.10.2020).