American Philological Association

The Catalogues of the Princely and Papal Libraries of the Italian Renaissance
Author(s): Dorothy M. Robathan
Source: Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 64 (1933),
pp. 138-149
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/283163 .
Accessed: 13/03/2011 14:07

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at .
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=jhup. .

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

American Philological Association and The Johns Hopkins University Press are collaborating with JSTOR to
digitize, preserve and extend access to Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological
Association.

http://www.jstor.org
138 Dorothy May Robathan [1933

XI.-The Catalogues of the Princely and Papal Libraries

of the Italian Renaissance

DOROTHY M. ROBATHAN
WELLESLEY COLLEGE

This paper is based on a study of fifteenth-century inventories of the

papal and princely libraries in Italy. A comparison of the number of classi-
cal manuscripts with those in the romance tongues as well as with those
by mediaeval and humanistic writers throws light upon the literary culture
of certain communities at the time when the catalogues were drawn up.
The growing interest in Greek literature is reflected in the increase in
number of manuscripts in that language in the later documents. The
effect of the introduction of printing upon the contents of certain libraries
is also significant.

To one who has any knowledge of the published inventories

of some of the famous libraries of the fifteenth century-such as
that of the Vatican under Sixtus IV-the subject of this paper
must appear overwhelming. For it is obvious that even one
catalogue consisting of more than three thousand items could
furnish material for a whole series of articles. What, then,
may we hope to gain from what would appear to be a super-
ficial examination of more than a dozen inventories, repre-
senting collections in Naples, Rome, Florence, Venice, Pavia,
Ferrara, Urbino, and Mantua?
In tracing the development of any one of these libraries
during the renaissance, a study of the extant inventories plays
an important part. This paper, based on such a study, aims to
present a composite picture, by comparing the catalogues of
these different collections, and noting significant phases in the
growth of interest in the classics. For the purpose of this
discussion, I am including only fifteenth-century documents,
referring to libraries formed by princes or the popes in Italy.
Let us consider first the nature and purpose of these lists of
manuscripts which have been brought to light in the archives
Vol. lxiv] Libraries of the Italian Renaissance 139

of the communities in which we are interested. Very often

they form part of a more extensive inventory which was
drawn up at the request of a ruler when he wished to have an
itemized list of the treasures of his domain, of which the
library may have formed an inconspicuous part. Thus it is
not surprising that their dates often coincide with the times
when new rulers took over the reins of government. This was
not always the case, as for example, the only extant complete
inventory of the library of the Aragon kings at Naples was
drawn up in 1481,1 at a time when King Ferdinand was in dire
straits. Since he needed money to aid in repelling the Turks,
who were threatening to invade his realm, he applied to a
Florentine broker for a loan, and offered as security his books
and jewels, of which an itemized list was necessary. As might
be expected, the one that was made bears all the earmarks of a
hastily written document. The same description may be
applied to some other catalogues that have not an equally
sound reason for being so carelessly constructed. All degrees
of accuracy are found in these lists. Sometimes the ignorance
of the compiler is startling, as for example, in the well-known
Pavia inventory of 1426,2 where we find two items labelled
uncertainly as "either Greek or Hebrew." 3
In very briefest form, the entries consist of the name of the
author or merely the title of the work; in more detailed lists,
both are given, as well as the incipit and the explicit. In some
4
catalogues this latter method is varied by the substitution of
the first words on the second folio and the last words on next
to the last folio. This device has proved very helpful in
identifying manuscripts in recent years. Another useful
identification mark is the reference to the material on which
1 Published by H. Omont, " Inventaire de la bibliothUque de Ferdinand I
d'Aragon," Bulletin de l'ecole des chartes LXX(1909), 456-470.
2 Published by G. d'Adda, Indagini storiche, artistiche e bibliografichesulla
libreria viscontea-sforzescadel castello di Pavia (Milan, 1875), 1-91.
3 Nos. 122 and 547.
4 E.g. the private inventory of pope Calixtus III, published
by E. Muentz,
Les arts h la cour des Papes pendant le XVe et le xvie siecle (Paris, 1878), 215 f.
10
140 Dorothy M. Robathan [1933
the work was written, as for example, in papiro, in pergameno,
while the description of the color and texture of the bindings
and of the elaborate clasps with which the codices were some-
times adorned, enables us to visualize the volumes as they
looked when the inventory was made. An individual note is
struck in the 1456 Medici catalogue,5 from which we learn that
the nature of the contents of the volumes could be judged by
the color of the bindings. For example, the manuscripts of
sacred literature were bound in blue, the grammatical works in
yellow, the poetical volumes in purple, while the historical
tomes rejoiced in covers of red. Somewhat less frequent than
the recurrence of external details is the description of the
script in which the work was written, and when this charac-
terization does occur, it is not always accurate. For instance,
in the 1464 Medici catalogue,6 we are impressed at first glance
by the number of manuscripts described as litteris vetustis or
litteris antiquissimis, until we happen to observe that the same
words are applied to Leonardo Bruni's Bellum Punicum, a
work which had been composed just a few years before.
Of some interest too, is a study of the order in which the
contents of the library are listed. Sometimes, as for example,
in the Naples inventory already referred to, there is no definite
plan according to either language or material. This, however,
is exceptional, and is due no doubt to the circumstances under
which the catalogue was drawn up. In the other documents
the manuscripts are sometimes grouped according to subject
matter, regardless of the language in which they were written,
as in the 1426 Pavia inventory, where volumes in Latin,
Greek, French, and Italian are intermingled. But more
frequently the arrangement is that of the 1482 catalogue of
Urbino,7 where the Latin codices come first, then the Greek,
6 Published by E. Piccolomini, " Delle condizioni e delle vicende della
libreria Medicea privata," Archivio storico italiano, ser. 3, xxi (1875), 106-112.
6 Published by E. Muentz, Les collections des M&dicis au quinzieme siecle
(Paris, 1888), 44-49.
7 Published by C. Stornaiolo, Codices Urbinates Graeci (Rome, 1885), Iv-
clxxv.
Vol. Ixiv] Libraries of the Italian Renaissance 141

and finally those in Hebrew. When this is the plan used,

there is generally a classification, not always strictly observed,
within the language division. An exception to this is noted in
the 1436 catalogue of Ferrara,8 where among the French
manuscripts, for example, we find tales of chivalry interspersed
among Bibles and translations from Latin classical authors and
from mediaeval works.
The groups into which the contents were usually divided
are as follows: Bibles and works of a sacred nature, including
glosses, commentaries, breviaries, lives of saints, works of
church fathers, etc.; law, canonical and civil; philosophy;
history; geography; medicine; astronomy and mathematics;
poetry; grammar. Of course, some of the catalogues combine
or omit some of these categories, and the order differs, but in
most of them first place is given to sacred literature.
A departure from this group system is noted in the 1495
Ferrara inventory,9 where the entries are made alphabetically.
As a result, the total number of 512 is not accurate, since some
works were entered under two letters, as, for instance, the story
of the Golden Ass, translated from Lucian, appears under A
and also under F, where the title begins with Fabulae. We
observe that the catalogue was neither exclusively by authors
nor by works, but was a combination of both. For example,
Cicero's letters were entered only under E, but the de Offciis
was listed only under Tulio (sic), while under C the only entry
ascribed to Cicero is opera.
So much for the form of the catalogues. What light do the
entries throw upon the literary culture of the communities
which they represent? The documents that we are con-
sidering range in date from 1417 to 1495 and vary in number of
volumes from 66 to 3650. In the first place, they give us a
check on the traditional size of the library. Take, for example,
8 Published
by A. Cappelli, " La biblioteca estense nella prima meta del
secolo xv," Giornale storico della letteratura italiana xiv (1889), 12-30, except
for the French manuscripts, which are published by Pio Rajna in Romania ii
(1873), 49-58.
9 Published by G. Bertoni, La biblioteca estense ai tempi del duca Ercole I
(Torino, 1903), Appendix ii, 235-252.
 142 Dorothy M. Robathan [1933
the famous collection of the Dukes of Urbino which Vespasiano
da Bisticci, the well-known Florentine bibliophile, described in
such glowing terms at the end of the fifteenth century.
According to this enthusiast, the Urbino library contained one
perfect copy of every work known at that time, sacred or
profane, in the original tongue or in translation.10 If our
credulity is taxed by this sweeping statement, it is further
strained by some of the more specific information. While we
might be inclined to accept without question the names of
Sophocles, Homer, Plato, and Aristotle, the inclusion of
Menander's "complete works" has caused modern scholars
to doubt Vespasiano's veracity.1l It seems unlikely that there
was a complete copy of Menander in Urbino at this time, and
that it vanished before it could be transcribed by anyone.
The two extant inventories of this library, dating from the end
of the century,12 omit mention of any work of Menander,
Pausanias, the Batrachomyomachia (ascribed to Homer), or of
Vegio, Gasparino, Pontano, and Tortello, all specifically named
by Vespasiano as having a place in the Urbino library.
Reports have also differed concerning the size of the papal
library under Nicholas V, for contemporary estimates vary all
the way from 9000 to 600 volumes.13 That the smaller number
is more nearly correct may be judged from an examination of
two inventories that were drawn up at the time of Nicholas's
death.14 In them we find listed 794 Latin and 440 Greek
codices, making a total of 1209.15
10 Vespasiano da Bisticci, Le vite di uomini illustri del secoloxv, ed. by L. Frati

(Bologna, 1892), I, 297-302.

11Cf. J. Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, trans. by
S. G. C. Middlemore (London, 1929), 200, note 1.
12 From internal evidence, which is too lengthy to produce here, it seems
certain that the Index Vetus, published by Stornaiolo, op. cit. (supra, note 7),
antedates the Index of Veterano, published by C. Guasti in Giornalestoricodegli
archivi toscani vi (1862), 127-147; vII (1863), 46-55, 130-154. To the former I
should assign the date 1482; to the latter, not long after 1502.
13Cf. J. Hilgers, " Zur Bibliothek Nikolaus V," Zentralblatt fur Biblio-
thekswesenxIx (1902), 1-11.
14 Published by E. Muentz et P. Fabre, La bibliothequedu Vatican au xv6
siecle (Paris, 1887), 48-112; 315-342.
15Cf. Hilgers, loc. cit.
Vol. Ixiv] Libraries of the Italian Renaissance 143

It is of course true that some catalogues misrepresent the

number of works included in the library, since often several
different ones were contained in the same volume. A case in
point may be found by studying two inventories of the private
library of Piero, the son of Cosimo dei Medici. In 1456 his
collection is listed as containing 160 volumes,16 but in 1464 the
total is given as only 128.17 A comparison of the inventories
item by item shows that the library suffered little change in the
seven years' interval, and that the discrepancy in the total
numbers resulted from the following facts: (1) some entries are
made twice in the earlier list; 18 (2) some authors which the
1464 catalogue explicitly states are in uno volumine 19are given
separately in that of 1456. Thus the later inventory is more
accurate numerically for volumes, but not for works.
But these catalogues are enlightening not only concerning
the number of volumes that each library possessed, but also in
regard to the kind of literature contained in them. The
earliest list that we are considering, that of the Gonzaga
collection at Mantua in 1417, contains 300 Latin manuscripts,
67 French, and 32 Italian, with none in Greek.20 This is a
good-sized library for the early part of the century, and it is to
be regretted that the part of the inventory which includes the
Latin manuscripts is unpublished, and my efforts to obtain
photostatic copies of it from the archives at Mantua have been
unsuccessful. We note, however, that the French codices
were twice as many as the Italian. This indication of a
culture that was French rather than Italian is also to be
observed in connection with the courts at Ferrara and Pavia.
From 1418, a year after the inventory was drawn up at
Mantua, we have a modest list, representing the nucleus of
16 Published by E. Piccolomini, loc. cit. (see note 5).
17 Published by E. Muentz, op. cit. in note 6.
18 E.g. the group of six labelled volgareis repeated.
19E.g. Tacitus and Valerius Maximus under historici.
20W. Braghirolli, " Inventaire des manuscrits en langue francaise possedes
par Francesco Gonzaga I, capitaine de Mantoue, mort en 1407," Romania ix
(1880), 498.
144 Dorothy M. Robathan [1933

Cosimo dei Medici's private collection, from which was to

spring that impressive Medici library which at the end of the
century numbered over a thousand volumes. Although this
catalogue of Cosimo's is of slight importance numerically, for it
contains only sixty-six items,21 it is of interest for another
reason. Less than two years before this inventory was written,
Poggio had made his important discoveries at Constance, and
it is significant to note that the commentary of Asconius
Pedianus on Cicero, several new orations of Cicero, and
Quintilian,22 which were found at that time, are included in
this short list.
Both sons of Cosimo, Giovanni and Piero, shared their
father's interest in collecting manuscripts, to such an extent
that between 1450 and 1460 they had a contest to see who could
acquire the better library. Unfortunately, Giovanni's inven-
tory of 1457 is not extant, but, as we have seen, Piero's library
in 1464 consisted of 128 volumes, among which there were
none in Greek and no printed books. In the next thirty years,
the Medici private library had grown to 1052 volumes, of
which over three hundred were in the Greek tongue.23 Of the
latter, the largest group was that devoted to theology, which
comprised 85 volumes, while the smallest representation was
given to astronomy and mathematics combined, of which there
were only a dozen books. Among the Latin works, theology
also had the largest number with 112 entries, while the
grammarians made the poorest showing, with only eleven
volumes.
But although we may marvel at the achievement of the
Medici family, who before 1495 had amassed a library of over a
thousand volumes, we find ourselves wondering even more at
the industry of the Visconti princes, who had almost as large a
21Published by F. Pintor, La libreria di Cosimo dg Medici nel 1418 (Firenze,
1902), 13-15.
22The manuscript of Quintilian may not, however, have contained the
complete text but the mutilated one, previously known.
23 This
inventory of 1495 is published by Piccolomini, op. cit. xix (1874),
116-117.
Vol. lxiv] Libraries of the Italian Renaissance 145

collection in 1426.24 This library at Pavia is notable not only

for its size, but also for the fact that it contained the most
important group of Petrarch's manuscripts, including works
by the following authors: Claudian, Cassiodorus, Eustachius,
Fulgentius, Augustine, Ambrose, Gregory, Victorinus, Sue-
tonius, Isidore, Quintus Curtius, Quintilian, and Plato and
Homer in Greek.25 These manuscripts, which are now in the
Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, are all listed in the inventory
of 1426. Of the other entries in this catalogue, about one
hundred are in French, a third as many in the vernacular, two
in Greek, and the rest apparently in Latin. Of these, the
mediaeval and humanistic manuscripts outnumber the clas-
sical, but the latter, nevertheless, present an imposing array.
For example, there were more than forty manuscripts of
Cicero's works, sixteen of Seneca's, and eleven of Priscian's as
well as copies in fewer numbers of Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Lucan,
Statius, Juvenal, Martianus Capella, Claudian, Macrobius,
Propertius, Boethius, Terence, Persius, Lactantius, Florus,
Servius, Suetonius, Vegetius, Frontinus, Apuleius, Vitruvius,
Livy, Celsus, Solinus, Pliny, Eusebius, Sallust, Valerius
Maximus, Eutropius, Varro, Cato, Justin, Quintilian, and
translations of Plato and Aristotle.
Perhaps it may seem strange that when other libraries, such
as that of the Medici, were increasing in number of manu-
scripts, the next inventory of the Visconti family, drawn up in
1459, should have recorded fewer volumes than its predecessor.
This fact was due, no doubt, to the liberality with which the
princes loaned their literary treasures. From the registers of
loans,26 which may be studied in connection with these
inventories, it is evident that the borrowers kept the volumes,
not two weeks, nor two months, but often many years, and
24 Published by d'Adda, loc. cit. (supra, note 2), containing 988 items.
25 Cf. P. de Nolhac, P6trarque et l'humanisme (Paris, 1907), I, 103-104.
26
Cf., for example, E. Piccolomini, " Ricordi di libri imprestati dal 1480 al
1494," Archivio storico italiano xxI (1875), 282-296; G. Coggiola, " II prestito
di manoscritti della Marciana dal 1474 al 1527," Zentralblattfir Bibliotheks-
wesen xxv (1908), 47-70.
146 Dorothy M. Robathan [1933
often they were not returned at all.27 This second Pavia
inventory28 shows that the largest group of Latin manuscripts,
comprising some two hundred volumes, was made up of
Bibles, commentaries, lives of saints, and other works of a
religious nature. Of the forty volumes dealing with philoso-
phy, half were devoted to Aristotle. Of classical poets, there
were comparatively few-about thirty-five-a number which
was equalled by writers on grammar, among whom Donatus
and Priscian figured prominently.
Of other north Italian collections, we have already observed
that Mantua and Ferrara were also distinguished by the larger
proportion of manuscripts in the French language. The latter
collection in 1467 contained 65 French codices, 23 Italian, 124
Latin, and no Greek. Pavia in 1459 had 75 volumes in
French, 35 Italian, 700 Latin, and two certainly Greek, both
of them from Petrarch's own library. Different in this
respect, however, was the rich collection of the Dukes of
Urbino, to which we have referred. At this center of learning,
we discover that there were neither French nor Italian manu-
scripts, but 84 in Hebrew, in addition to 164 in Greek and 335
in Latin.
Thus far we have been concerned only with the reports on
princely libraries. Let us turn next to the papal collections, as
revealed by documents drawn up after the return of that court
from Avignon in 1420. The first catalogue is that of Eugene
IV, which in 1443 contained 340 volumes.29 Theology,
canonical law, and scholastic philosophy form the largest part,
but the classics are represented by works of Livy, Cicero,
Virgil, Ovid, Seneca, Galen, Boethius, Xenophon, Demosthe-
nes, Aristotle, Valerius Maximus, Juvenal, and Horace. Of
fifteenth-century humanists we find only Leonardo Bruni,
Maffeo Vegio, and Ambrogio Traversari.
27Published by G. Mazzatinti, "Inventario dei codici della biblioteca
viscontea-sforzesca redatta da Ser Facino da Fabriano," Giornale storico della
letteraturaitaliana I (1883), 40-56.
28App. I, 213-225. Op. cit. in note 9.
29 Published by Muentz et Fabre, op. cit. (supra, note 14), 9-32.
Vol. lxiv] Librariesof the Italian Renaissance 147

In startling contrast to this unremarkablelist is the inven-

tory that was compiled twelve years later by the humanistic
scholar, Tommaso Parentucelli, then Pope Nicholas V.
Using the nucleus of 340 volumes left him by Eugene IV, in
the brief periodof eight years while he sat on the papal throne
Nicholas V increasedthe libraryto 1209 volumes, of which 414
were in Greek.30 It is of interest to recall that this was the
very man who had previously evolved the famous canon for
Cosimo dei Medici,31in accordancewith which the librariesof
San Marco and Fiesole, as well as those at Urbinoand Pesaro,
were established. But Nicholas's own libraryoutstrippedthe
minimum which he regardedas essential for a well-equipped
collection. Among the classical authors found in his library
and not included in his canon are Terence, Catullus, and
Juvenal.
With such rapid strides as the papal librarymade underthis
bibliophile, we are not surprised to find that twenty years
later, underSixtus IV, the numberof volumes reached2527, of
which 770 were in Greek.32 Of those in Latin, the largest
single group is devoted to the historians(125 volumes), where
numerouscopies of Livy consortwith such mediaevaltomes as
the SpeculumHistoriale of Vincent of Beauvais, or with the
humanisticwritings of LeonardoAretino. Of those in Greek,
the largest division is a miscellaneous assortment labelled
obscurioresquidamauctoresecclesiae,and the next largest is
that containing the seventy manuscriptsof the orators. But
Sixtus IV was not satisfied with this record-breakingachieve-
ment, and in the nine years which still remained before his
death he added 1100 volumes, making a total of 3650.33
In examining and comparingthe records of these different
collections, we are impressedby the indications of a growing
interest in Greek. We note, for example, that in the two
30Supra, note 15.
31Published by G. Sforza, La patria, la famiglia e la giovinezza di
Papa
Niccolo V (Lucca, 1884), Appendix A.
32 Published
by Muentz et Fabre, op. cit. (supra, note 14), 161-250.
33Ib. 141.
148 Dorothy M. Robathan [1933

inventories of earliest date there are no Greek manuscripts

included.34 The next three, taken in chronological order,35
contain two, one, and two Greek manuscripts respectively,
while in Pavia and Ferrara, where we have noted a large
number of manuscripts in the romance tongues, those in Greek
never numbered more than two copies even at the end of the
century. In the collections of the Medici and the popes,
however, we have observed a steady increase of interest in
Hellenism. Among the Florentine circle this tendency was
stimulated by the two hundred manuscripts which Janos
Lascaris brought back from his two trips to Byzantium.
In the inventories that we have thus far considered, the
number of Latin manuscripts surpassed by a fair margin those
in the Greek tongue. But there was one collection where the
reverse was the case. What was later known as the Library of
San Marco in Venice was, until the middle of the sixteenth
century, substantially the library of Cardinal Bessarion. This
Byzantine scholar, who left his fatherland in 1438, brought with
him to Rome a library of Greek manuscripts more important
for number and content than any existing in Italy. In 1468 he
gave these books to the republic of Venice, and the inventory
which was drawn up at that time indicates that there were 482
Greek codices and 254 in Latin.36 Of those in Greek, about
two hundred were works of a sacred nature and the others were
divided among the conventional groups.
Another noteworthy phase in the development of these
renaissance libraries resulted from the establishment of the
first printing press in Italy in 1465 at Subiaco. None of the
inventories issued previous to that date show any indications
that the libraries possessed anything but hand-written books.
And in the Urbino catalogue of 1481 no printed books occur.
This fact seems to bear out Vespasiano's statement that Duke
34That is, Mantua, 1417; Cosimo dei Medici's, 1418.
36 That is, Pavia, 1426; Ferrara, 1436; Eugene IV's, 1443.
36Published by H. Omont, "Inventaire des manuscrits grecs et latins
donn6s a Saint Marc de Venise par le Cardinal Bessarion," Revue des Biblio-
theques iv (1894), 149-179.
Vol. Ixiv] Libraries of the Italian Renaissance 149

Frederick refused to have his collection contaminated by the

presence of a single printed volume. The Naples catalogue of
the same date, however, shows that the Aragon kings did not
share this aversion, for out of 206 volumes 46 are labelled
stampata. And that this enthusiasm for the new industry was
not confined to southern Italy is clear from an examination of
the 1495 catalogue of Ferrara, where out of 512 entries 163 are
indicated as "machine-made." The Medici catalogue of the
same date, on the contrary, contains comparatively few
volumes of this sort. The art of printing was relatively late
in its development at Florence, for no press was established
there until 1471. Perhaps it is not strange that the city which
gave employment to so many professional scribes should have
been slow to encourage the development of an art that would
ultimately deprive them of their livelihood. But the foot-
hold gained by the printed book at the end of the fifteenth
century, however slight it was, was the first step in a battle in
which the manuscripts were destined to play a losing part.
The last to give way to the onslaught were books of a religious
nature, such as missals, breviaries, offices, which continued to
be written by hand. This same conservative tendency is to be
found in the catalogues of the libraries themselves, for we still
consult hand-written lists of the conventi soppressi collections
in the Laurentian library, or of the Reginensis manuscripts in
the Vatican.
Beyond the limits set by the subject of this paper, there lies a
series of other documents, no less interesting in content and
equally valuable for the light that they throw upon humanistic
studies. For the impetus to read and imitate classical authors
came not only from the princes and popes who formed such
imposing libraries as those which we have been considering.
Of importance also was the part played by humbler scholars,
who through their own private collections of manuscripts
helped to diffuse the spirit which we have come to recognize as
characteristic of the renaissance.

11