Here’s to Libraries, Number Twenty-Three!

The Biblioteca Angelica, in Rome, Italy, is a public library (established in 1604, opened to the public in 1609); the collection contains numerous manuscripts (including the Codex Angelicus) and over 1,100 incunabula.  It was actually part of the Augustinian Monastery.

• The collection contains nearly 200,000 volumes.
• The larger sectors of the collection include works on the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation.
• Other areas of interest consist of Bibles, texts on Italian literature and theatre from 15th to 18th century.
• The collection includes also works on the thought of St. Augustine and the activities of the Augustinian Order.
• The Manuscript Fund consists of nearly 24,000 unbound documents and 2,700 Latin, Greek and Oriental volumes.
• The collection of works edited by G. B. Bodoni (1740-1813) includes 536 exemplars, most of them acquired in 1919.
• The Angelica owns 460 unbound geographical maps, of which 85 are manuscript nautical charts produced in the Netherlands, numerous atlases and around 10,000 maps bound in volumes.
• Of notable interest are two pairs of geographical globes by W. J. Bleau from the end of 16th century.
• There is an interesting collection of drawings of City Views from southern Italy dating from the 16th century as well as numerous drawings contained in the manuscript volumes.
• The Modern Fund is comprised of 120,000 volumes; its specialized areas are Italian literature and literary criticism, religious historical studies.
• The Angelica owns important modern correspondence:
  • the correspondence of the Roman poet Domenico Gnoli (1838-1915) (6,000 letters);
  • the correspondence of the archaeologist Felice Barnabei (1842-1922) (over 17,000 letters);
  • and the manuscripts, in Roman dialect, of Gigi Zanazzo (1860-1911).
  • Another highlight is the private correspondence of Arnaldo Bocelli (1900-1974), contained in the Archivio Bocelli acquired in 2000 (6,200 letters);
  • the Angelica also possesses the literary critic’s personal library, largely comprised of texts of Italian literature of the 1900s.
  • The Angelica owns 672 periodical publications, of which 150 are current.

“They should be taking bonuses from bankers, not library books from schoolchildren.  What kind of society are we building?”  — Sara Sheridan

Source: photo courtesy of danieldalton.me  (BuzzFeed).