Biblioteca Casanatense

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Glance into the salon
Sculpture of the founder
Via Sant'Ignazio : transition from the Casanatense to the Palazzo del Collegio Romano (formerly BNCR , today MiBACT )

The Biblioteca Casanatense is a state library in Rome, Via S. Ignazio 52, which goes back to a foundation of Cardinal Girolamo Casanate (1620-1700) and was operated by the Dominicans at Santa Maria sopra Minerva until 1884 . It was opened in 1701 after a separate building had been completed on the grounds of the convent based on a design by the architect Antonio Maria Borioni and was run as a public library in accordance with the cardinal's testamentary provisions.

During the first Roman Republic , the library was placed under state control and was a departmental library from 1810 to 1814. Their administration continued to be carried out by the Dominicans. Their prefect was Giacomo Alberto Magno, who took care of the cathalogization. The Riccy and Baini holdings expanded in the middle of the 19th century during the prefecture of Giacinto De'Ferrari, and there was an expansion in the form of premises along Via S. Ignazio.

Of the approximately 20,000 books in the cardinal's private library, however, only a few can still be reliably identified in the current inventory of almost 400,000 volumes, 60,000 of which are in the main library on barred shelves. In addition to the approx. 6000 manuscripts and over 2200 incunabula, 13,000 prints from the 16th century ( Cinquecentine ) are available. The Casanatense regularly exchanged duplicates of manuscripts and printed works with the Holy Office , so it has considerable holdings on the history of the Catholic missions in China from the 16th to the 18th centuries. The Fondo Editti e bandi Pontifici includes 71,000 printed documents from the early 16th century until 1870, important sources for the history of the Roman Curia and the Papal States . 1500 of these volumes contain material on the Roman Inquisition , plus 300 more from other holdings that together form the Raccolta di bandi dell'Inquisizione Romana . Several volumes refer to the activity of the founder Casanate in the Cardinal Congregation responsible for the Inquisition and Index .

Around 300 of the manuscripts are illuminated . Among them are liturgical scrolls from Benevento such as the Exultet scroll Cas. 724 / III (formerly BI 13 ) from the 12th century. The roles Cas 724 / I and 724 / II are a pontifical and a benediction , also from Benevento. The pure text manuscripts include Canones apostolorum from the 8th century, the Liber Maioris Ecclesiae Beneventanae , with a calendar from the 9th century, and a Roman Pontificale from the 11th century.

In 1873 the decree on the nationalization of church libraries was also applied to Rome. Initially, the Dominicans were provided with staff from the neighboring Roman National Library and the administration was standardized. A Dominican, namely Pio Tommaso Masetti, remained prefect, but Prof. Gilberto Govi ​​was placed at his side as an administrative functionary. A transition was also created to the building of the National Library; the library was managed jointly with the Biblioteca Vittorio Emanuele II.

In 1884 the trial brought against the nationalization of the library by the Order ended in defeat. As a result, the Dominican library staff was completely replaced by officials of the kingdom who were subordinate to the Ministero dell'Istruzione Pubblica. In 1898 the entrance to the library was moved to Via Sant'Ignazio after the premises had also been expanded. There were also rooms in the mezzanine. The directors Ignazio Giorgi (1899–1923) and Luigi De Gregori (1925–1936) contributed significantly to the reorganization of the Casanatense in the 20th century . The last expansion took place in 1978 when a number of rooms were added in the secondo piano on the side of the inner courtyard.

In the building complex of the former Dominican convent, which is also called Insula Sapientiae , there has been the parliamentary library ( Polo bibliotecario parlamentare ) in addition to the Casanatense since 1988 .

The main focus of the collection, initially encyclopedically comprehensive, initially concentrated on traditional theological and technological areas, and for a short time also on studies of Roman law , the economy and the city of Rome. From 1975 the house, until then subordinate to the Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione, was added to the Ministero per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali . The focus shifted to library and bibliographic topics. From 1990 to 2001 Angela Adriana Cavarra was director and successor to Serrai, Di Cesare and Janni. She was followed by Gianni Bonazzi from 2001 to 2004, but Cavarra took over the office again on January 1, 2005.

literature

Web links

Commons : Biblioteca Casanatense  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Il patrimonio librario
  2. ↑ Around 1000, mainly music, were acquired mainly between 1965 and 1973: a brief inventory
  3. ^ Gli inconaboli
  4. ↑ Gli editti ei bandi
  5. ↑ Digital collection on the Internet culturale
  6. ↑ Exultet: Roma, Biblioteca Casanatense, Cas. 724 (BI13) III , a cura di Guglielmo Cavallo , with contributions by G. Cavallo and Beat Brenk . Pavone Canavese: Priuli & Verlucca, 1994.
  7. ↑ Le Biblioteche pubbliche statali: storia e sedi nei 150 anni dell'unificazione nazionale. Vademecum delle Biblioteche pubbliche statali e degli Istituti culturali , Rome, undated , p. 61.

Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 55.3 "  N , 12 ° 28 ′ 45.7"  E