Library of the Waldensian Cultural Center Foundation
The library of the Waldensian Cultural Center Foundation is located in Torre Pellice in Piedmont . It belongs to the Waldensian Cultural Center Foundation , the Centro Culturale Valdese (CCV). This was founded in the aforementioned capital of the Waldensian valleys , more precisely in the Pellice valley .
The library offers 85,000 volumes, plus around 900 journals, 165 of which are continuously subscribed to. There are also prints from the 16th and 17th centuries, so-called Cinquecentine and Seicentine , as well as 1,500 Bibles. The collection offers historical and theological focus on the history and culture of the Waldensians and Protestant groups in Italy. The house therefore not only belongs to the Servizio bibliotecario nazionale , but also participates in the Bibliografia valdese on line project . The foundation also maintains the Biblioteca della Società di studi valdesi . This special library on the subjects of the Reformation , Waldensian histories and religious movements in Italy offers a further 13,000 volumes and 200 periodicals, around 70 of which are continuous.
history
The current library goes back to the merger of the Bibliothèque du Collège and Bibliothèque pastorale , as it was carried out in the 1830s and 1840s. Both libraries were in the Waldensian college. In 1889 the Casa valdese was built to commemorate the Glorieuse rentrée , the return of the Waldensians from Geneva in 1689. Another collection was donated by the librarian Alexandre Vinay, who had been in office since 1879. There were 16,000 volumes in the Nouvelle Bibliothèque Vaudoise , as his collection was called. In the 1930s the library contained around 30,000 volumes, in 1963 50,000 and in 1979 71,000 volumes. In 1989 the three libraries were jointly transferred to today's domicile. However, parts of the historical inventory remained in the old hall of the Casa Valdese.
Since no new edition had appeared since the 1953 edition of the Waldensian bibliography by Giovanni Gonnet and Augusto Armand Hugon, the Fondazione Centro culturale valdese decided, in collaboration with the Società di studi valdesi, to create a new edition in digital form, which has been available on the Internet since 2003 , meanwhile in four languages, including German.
Since 2012 , the Dizionario Biografico dei Protestanti in Italia , the 'Biographical Dictionary of Protestants in Italy' , managed by the Società di studi valdesi , has also been available online.
Since 2014, the estate of Piero Guicciardini (1808–1886) in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale has been cataloged and made accessible in digital form. Guicciardini was a co-founder of the Chiesa Cristiana Evangelica dei Fratelli . His estate includes 1,800 prints from the 16th century, all Bible editions from the 18th century and writings by the reformers of the 19th century.
Stocks
In accordance with the systematic procurement on the one hand and the numerous, mostly unsystematic collections that the house received in the form of foundations and donations, the holdings are of a strongly divergent nature. Theological works from the context of Protestantism , then their church history (s), form an essential part . In many cases these are French and German, but also English works, but above all Italian ones.
The foundation of the Edinburgh Waldensian Committee deserves special mention , especially from Scottish visitors who traveled to the Waldensian valleys in the 19th century. The publications of the Casa editrice Claudiana have been passed down with the greatest possible continuity, similar to those of other Protestant publishers, such as the Doxa di Gangale . The same applies to the periodicals, to which a large collection of the Salvation Army was recently added.
The Cinque- and Seicentine consist primarily of the writings of the reformers, such as Jean Calvin , Philipp Melanchthon , Martin Bucer or Huldrych Zwingli , but also in Bible editions. In addition, there are later prints on the topics of philology, philosophy, education and natural sciences, but also ethnographic writings, especially on the Alpine region, but also on overarching issues, such as in the Prochet fund with its 1,200 volumes.
Web links
- Biblioteca , website of the Centro Culturale Valdese
Remarks
- ^ Augusto Armand Hugon, Giovanni Gonnet: Bibliografia valdese , Torre Pellice 1953.
- ^ Bibliografia Valdese. Waldensian Bibliography. Waldensian bibliography. Bibliography Vaudoise .
- ↑ Introduction .
- ^ Dizionario Biografico dei Protestanti in Italia
- ^ Fondo Prochet .