RICERCA ITALIANA     

An index of the western latin archival sources (VII c.-1520)

Università degli Studi di Verona

Abstract

The aim of this reaserch consists in the realization of a Repertorio of books inventories that have been written between the VIIIth century and the 1520 considered in their quality of historical sources. The geographical area that we bring into focus of our analysis covers the whole Latin West, with the exclusion only of Tuscany and France; for both, in fact, this kind of analysis it's coming to an end (for Tuscany by the SISMEL, for France by the IRHT in Paris).
Till now such an instrument for the modern historical research has not been available because the only Census of inventories was taken by Th. Gottlieb more than a century ago (Th. Gottlieb, "Über mittelalteriche Biblioteken", Liepzig 1890).
The realization of this Repertorio went through an eleven years long biographical perusal and now it can take advantage of a suitable informatic platform: a specific software planned by SISMEL, with whom organize, select and make available the collected data in a ductile and effective way.
For what concerns Italy, we can say the Census it's coming to an end for what concerns its bibliographical perusal as well as for the data recording.
For the extranational areas instead, at the moment, the recording concerned only that part of documents their historical and cultural relief has been considered of the greatest importance.
Through the description of the inventorial repert, articulated into well defined ranges, it's >>>

Principal Investigator

Massimiliano Bassetti Università degli Studi di VERONA

Research Objectives

From what we said before we can now enucleate the principal aims of this project:
-to complete the census of the italian inventorial sources;
-to achieve the census of the extranational inventorial documents by the enpowerment of the bibliographical perusals and the insertion of the already selected data with the exclusion of France. That happens because the IRHT is working on an up-to-date version of the Repertorio edited twenty years ago by A. M. Genevois, J. F. Genest & A. Chalandon, "Bibliothèques de manuscrits médiévaux en France…", Paris 1987. Comprehensive only of the French inventories till 1799, with a digitalization of their most rare editions, it's named ISBA (Inventaire des Sources sur les Bibliotèques Anciennes). [For the work in progress see on line the M. Peyrafort's briefing, "L'odysée de l'ISBA (…)" exposed on the 1th of December 2005 during the XIIth Convention on the topic "Le manuscrit dans tous ses étates (…)", organized by IRHT-Aedilis (http://aedilis.rht.cnrs.fr/manuscrit/isba.htm). The scholar spoke about it during the last 14th December Convention dedicated to "Les bilbiotèques médiévales au XXe siècle…" in which the Docs P. Massalin and G. Fiesoli took part (SISMEL) introducing their own researches "in itinere".
-to publish the census results in volumes, eventually fitted out with CD-ROM, giving priority to Italian Regions and, following, to the >>>

First Results

In such way configured, our Repertory of inventorial documents will be an essential instrument for the realization of the first universal collection of edited book catalogues -in a broad sense- contained in medieval and humanistic libraries from the Carolingian Age to the first Renaissance age (ab. 1520); it will be a collection that is needed for Italy and generally for the whole Latin-West. Anyone can see the further potentialities guaranteed by the process of digitalization of the textes, that is coming to an end, though only to the Italian area, and will permit the check of the collected data with the help of the editions. The informatic platform able to keep such a big Corpus, will permit, with the necessary enpowerment, to add anytime addenda and corrigenda, trying to avoid to let it ageing too early, because of the frequency this kind of documentation is studied and edited.
By taking as a starting point the publication of the Actes of a profitably international Meeting titled "Books, readers and libraries of the Medieval Italy (IX-XV cent.). Sourches, textes, utilisation of the book", Actes of the French-Italian Round-table (Rome 7th-8th of March 1997), edited by G. Lombardi and D. Nebbiai Dalla Guarda, published in the year 2000, organized by two of the agencies that have been overseeing such a research since a long time, the IRHT in Paris and the Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico (ICCU in Rome), we must say that the growing interest in the >>>

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

The need to dispose a repertory of inventorial documents about book properties, drawn up between the early Middle Ages and the Renaissance, able to include the Latin cultural inheritance as a whole, is constantly growing everywhere. Th. Gottlieb’s monographic work, “Über mittelalterliche Bibliotheken”, Leipzig 1890 (reprint Graz 1955), actually the only census shaped as ‘regestum’ or short communications, endowed with universal amplitude, not only in relation to the large number of involved geographical areas, but also to the heterogeneous range of documentary typologies examined (inventories and catalogues properly speaking and archives as wills, donations, purchases etc.), was a commendable enterprise, worthy of the highest praise, but at present it needs ‘addenda and corrigenda’. Moreover, the modern scholarly approach to the search around ancient books has radically changed: a careful re-examination of the issue is imposed by the change of sensibility as well as by the comparison with different methodological praxis (codicological, palaeographical, philological, historical attitudes) and by the progressive increase of editions of these documents as well as specific studies devoted to the genesis, to the progressive development and to the eventual dispersion of ancient book collections. By treasuring the Gottlieb’s pioneering enterprise and joining together the elements in our possession, flowed from bibliographical research lasted beyond one decade by help of the >>>