1st Edition
Paper Heritage in Italy, France, Spain and Beyond (16th to 19th Centuries) Collector Aspirations & Collection Destinies
This book takes a long-term approach, spanning from the end of the 16th to the end of the 19th centuries, to explore how men and women in Italy, France, and Spain collected, displayed, and passed down various types of papers.
The contributors share a core interest in the relationship between social actors and their paper heritage. The collectors, who come from diverse cultural, social, and gender backgrounds, provide insights into the reasons and processes behind the accumulation, valorisation, and transmission of their paper heritage. Unlike most studies on collecting, this book shifts the focus away from collections and institutions to the owners of the collected objects and their desires for their accumulated papers. This volume covers three centuries and provides insights into the aspirations of collectors and the fate of their papers after transmission. It takes place against the backdrop of major social, political, and cultural changes affecting the Italian peninsula, the Spanish monarchy, and France. The cultural interests and the collector networks often extended beyond Europe, as noted by many of the essays in this volume.
Paper Heritage in Italy, France, Spain and Beyond (16th to 19th Centuries) will interest scholars and students of Early Modern and Modern European History across various fields, including social and cultural history, intellectual history, gender history, history of collecting and patronage.
Introduction
Benedetta Borello and Laura Casella
PART I
Collecting Papers to Leave a Mark: Physicians, Scholars, and Nuns
1 The Legacy of Catalina de Mendoza to the Colegio Máximo
of Alcalá de Henares (17th Century)
2 Boxes and Shelves for Future Generations:
Showcasing Paolo Beni’s Papers (1623-1625)
Benedetta Borello
3 Who Was Pompeo Caimo’s Library Intended For?
Family Use and Public Endowment of a 17th Century Book Collection
Laura Casella and Maria Adank
PART II
Linking Networks Through Pages:
Men of Letters and Their Friends
4 From Salamanca to Florence:
the Collection of Books and Manuscripts of Girolamo da Sommaia
(Early 17th Century)
Paola Volpini
5 Three Inventories, Two Brothers and a (Missing) Library:
the Book Collection of Cassiano and Carlo Antonio dal Pozzo
Elena Valeri
6 The Papers of the Deceased
The Patrimonialisation of Scholarly Papers in 18th Century France
Emmanuelle Chapron
PART III
Papers of the Professionals: Mathematicians and Jurists
7 Collecting Mathematics in Baroque Rome.
The Library-Museum of Gasparo Berti
Federica Favino
8. Law Books and Professional Law Libraries
in the Roman Inventories and Catalogues of the Early 17th Century
Simona Feci
PART IV
Papers to Create a Museum: Wishes and Aspirations
Of Noble Patrons and Other Donors
9 A Marble and Paper Heritage.
The Galleria Giustiniana and the Birth of the Illustrated Catalogue
Cecilia Mazzetti Di Pietralata
10 The Library and the Collection of Prints.
Palazzo Manfrin in Venice (18th and 19th Centuries)
Linda Borean
11 From Private Collection to Shared Heritage.
An Aristocratic Donation in 19th Century Naples
Vittoria Fiorelli
12 The Reasons Behind a Documentary Bequest.
María Josepa Massanés, Emilia Serrano and a Library-Museum
(19th Century Spain)
Núria Jornet-Benito
Biography
Benedetta Borello is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Cassino. She has been a fellow at the EUI (Florence), the Italian Academy (Columbia University NY) and MIAS (Madrid). Her research activity is focused on the history of the élites, family history and gender history, network analysis, and the public sphere. She is the author of Trame sovrapposte. La socialità aristocratica e le reti di relazioni femminili a Roma (XVII–XVIII secolo) (2003), Il posto di ciascuno. Fratelli, sorelle e fratellanze (XVI–XIX secolo) (2016), and L’apprentissage de Rome à la Renaissance. Officiers à l’ombre de la Curie (xve – xviie siècle) (2021).
Laura Casella is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Udine. She has been visiting Professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris and in Marseille. Her main research interests concern the political and cultural role of élites, the history of border areas, family history and gender history. She is the author of I Savorgnan: la famiglia e le opportunità del potere, secc. XV–XVIII (2003), «Per parlare da fratello a fratello». Famiglia e carriere nelle lettere di Pompeo ed Eusebio Caimo, 1588–1640 (2022) and co-editor of Construire les liens de famille dans l'Europe moderne (2013).
