RICERCA ITALIANA     

Research program

Books, libraries and culture by the regular orders in modern Italy

University Co-ordinator

Università degli Studi ROMA TRE - STUDI STORICI,GEOGRAFICI E ANTROPOLOGICI - ()

Research Unit Leader

Roberto Rusconi

Description

It is quite obvious that the lists of the titles of the books owned by the regular orders, and sent to the Congregation of the Index between 1598 and 1603, represented their actual ownership of books, by friars and monks, by convents and monasteries, and for this reason they give only indirect informations on their religious and intellectual levels (see Barbieri 2005). Before all, a real difference existed between the data referred to the lists of titles of books either conserved in the monastic and conventual libraries, on the one side, or by single friars and monks, on the other side. In the first case, moreover, a basic difference has to be taken into account, i.e., between more ancient libraries – where book entered time after time, and on different grounds as purchase or gift etc. (not to mention the records referring to manuscripts still kept on the shelves) – and recently founded libraries – which offer the chance to detect some sort of a religious and cultural policy orienting the acquisition of books (see for instance for the Capuchins: Barbieri 2002; Granata 2003). In the other case, a wide range of situations was attested, since the scope of the lists of the titles owned by single friars and monks attested either a limited number of books – a documentation coming from a scarce intellectual level, but also from the real need of books in order to perform one's religious duties – and the huge libraries of big intellectuals, as for instance the former Servite Paolo Sarpi.

With the help of the more recent studies, the purpose of the research will be to verify the real effects on the status of books after the publication of the "Index librorum prohibitorum" by pope Clement VIII in 1596 (see Fragnito 2001), the last Index of a long series published during the sixteenth century, when different inquisitions entered a jurisdictional competition in some parts of Italy. If this was the situation, the ownership of books by the regular orders will be scrutinized in order to ascertain at what extent self-censorship was operated and operating among friars and monks, with the effect to apply the main lines of the Tridentine reform and of the Counterreformation without any enforcement. Another problem to be investigated is the amount of consciousness of the real extension of the prohibitions regarding the books, their production, circulation and conservation. The documentary evidence attests a wide range of situations: in some cases prohibited books were kept and listed separately, often even before the publication of the "Index librorum prohibitorum" in 1596, and also a large amount of "suspect" books were included in the lists of the titles of the books owned inside the regular orders; sometimes a special mark was added to the items of these lists, in order to call the attention on a single title; and in many cases the author of the list seems to be fully unaware of the dangerous character of a book. When the authorities of the regular orders ordered to write these lists and finally collected them, the evidence of attitudes and behaviours by single friars and monk was not clear, as referred either to the censorship directed to "correct" passages of a book and its printed editions (see Fragnito 2000) and to the "licences to read", from time to time given to own and read some books (see Frajese 2000).

There is a number of problems to be investigated. First of all, we need to verify to what extent either the increasing censorship referred to the translations of biblical texts in native languages had a real influence inside the regular orders (see Fragnito 1997), and how far a wider attitude of suspicion was affecting the whole literature connected to the Sacred Scriptures. An attitude of wise and cautious suspect attained also the devotional literature in the native languages, increasingly included in the ecclesiastical prohibitions (see Caravale 2003; Fragnito 2005), regarding books very often written by friars and monks.
At the time it was quite obvious that the prohibitions included especially the works by the Dutch humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam (see Rosa 1990) and by the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola (see Fragnito 1999; Barzazi 2001; Rozzo 2001). As a matter of fact, notwithstanding the prohibitions of the ecclesiastical censorship, many editions of their works were included in the lists of the titles of the books owned by the regular orders: the purpose of this research is to trace the attitudes of the friars and the monks in this respect.

The Congregation of the Index asked to receive the full lists of the titles of all the books owned by the friars and the monks, the convents and the monasteries, which included any kind of literature for this reason. A category of books included in these lists regarded the Italian literature, some works of which were exactly the object of the ecclesiastical censorship (see Rozzo 2005). A wide range of titles quite obviously included the editions of philosophical, theological and juridical books – a large amount of information to be examined in detail – and above all the editions of works used in order to perform ecclesiastical duties: not to mention liturgical books, many and many editions of works regarding the preaching to the people and the hearing of confessions filled these lists, since the pastoral care was the special obligation of the friars by the last centuries of the middle ages, of their reformed branches and of the new orders of regular clerics: an orientation largely supported by the new ecclesiastical dispositions approved in order to give life to the Tridentine reform (see Rusconi 2003).
Last but not least, the amount of information in the lists of books owned by the regular orders, either individually and collectively, will give the chance of an effective evaluation of different hypothesis concerning the real scope of Antonio Possevino's works, mostly the "Bibliotheca selecta" (1593) and the "Coltura degli ingegni" (1958), as referred to the realization of libraries by monks and friars (see at least Carella 1993 and Balsamo 2001). Another object of investigation in such field will be the real influence of another former bibliographical model for the biblical literature, that is the "Bibliotheca sancta", published by the Dominican friars Sisto of Siena in 1566.

The organization of the research team requires a previous engagement of its members, with the special help of young scholars, supported by one research grant and some scholarships. The results of the investigations on these topics will offer the chance to organize a conference at the end of the program, whose papers will be published (being the case, papers will be offered also to historical journals etc.).
The final result of the investigations will be either a wide reconstruction of the book productions, mostly in the field of theology and devotion, and a more refined approach to the religious and intellectual world of regular orders and congregations, for the age of Reformation and Counterreformation.