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The Endowed Municipal Public LibrariesAuthor(s): Ennio Sandal, Rino Pizzi and Prentiss MooreSource: Libraries & Culture, Vol. 25, No. 3, Libraries and Librarianship in Italy (Summer,1990), pp. 358-371Published by: University of Texas PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25542275 .

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The Endowed Municipal Public Libraries

Ennio Sandal

There can be no doubt that to a foreign observer?an observer of dif

ferent cultural background used to situations different from the Italian one

?the Italian library scene would appear extremely complex, and it would

hardly be exaggerating to add that in certain ways such a scene would seem

incomprehensible. Among the factors that might give rise to such impres sions and even certain judgments is the existence of a remarkable number

of large libraries whose functions and structures are similar to those owned

by the state, but with different ownership. The designation "public" car

ried by many of these libraries adds even more to this confusion, when we

consider that the term's meaning appears so distant from its English homo

nym, which is specific to the Anglo-Saxon and northern European library experience.

Italy finds itself, in fact, provided with numerous library institutions

endowed with a considerable and rich bibliographic patrimony made up of

manuscripts, old printed editions, and historical municipal archives pre

viously owned by noble families: such library and documentary collections,

enriched with more recent book acquisitions, represent a kind of compro

mise between a conservation library and a more general library of historical

origin. They are open to everybody and in most cases belong to local public

administrations: from this comes their frequent designation as "civic,"

"municipal," and "public," where such modifiers do not refer to the type

of service and content of the collection so much as to the institution's public

ownership.

At the origin of this unique situation lies a historical coincidence. The

period when the institution of libraries intended for public use was being

pursued was also that of the political situation preceding the founding of

the Italian state, with the proclamation of the Italian Kingdom in 1861.

Translation by Rino Pizzi and Prentiss Moore.

Libraries and Culture, Vol. 25, No. 3, Summer 1990 ?1990 by (he University of Texas Press, P.O. Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713



359

Prior to this date the Italian national territory was fragmented into many

regional states, and such a political reality?which arose from diverse histori

cal events and administrative realities and itself created diverse circumstances

?had a decisive influence on the founding and formation of the libraries that arose within those circumstances, which in turn gave these libraries their

unique qualities even though they

were unified in many other ways.

The history of the ancient Italian states before their unification is, as a

matter of fact, the determining factor in the founding, development, and

number of these nonstate libraries; they often represent the intention of

those local administrations, which reflects their origin in the medieval city state. Confirming this point to a certain extent is their greater number in

the northern and central regions of Italy, whereas they are scarce in the

territories that were previously part of the Kingdoms of Sicily and Naples. Around the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the urban realities of northern

and central Italy were structured around the political phenomenon of the

city communes, whose rise and development were favored by particular

juridical circumstances; such regions constituted the Regnum Italiae whose crown belonged to the Holy Roman Emperor. The fact that the emperor

usually resided beyond the Alps helped smooth the way for broader forms of autonomy in those cities, which had thrived thanks to commerce and

financial and entrepreneurial activities. Through the centuries and the

disintegration of the signories and principalities, several states of regional dimension established themselves in the Regnum Italiae, political entities

that, however, lacked that strong centralization characterizing the modern

state; they were, rather, federations centered on urban structures recog

nizing the preeminence of a prince or of the capital city, but jealously defending their autonomy in the administrative functions of taxation and

planning, though still acknowledging control from the central administra

tion in matters of foreign policy. The meaning of this historical digression is crucial to understanding the

facts discussed here, considering that such relative autonomy characterized

the civic and administrative life of many northern and central Italian cities

that were not capitals of the states they belonged to, an autonomy invariably

persisting until the end of the ancient regime. Such autonomy constituted

a favorable terrain for the birth and development of the library institutions considered here.

Some Data

So far I have advanced?although not in formal fashion?the question of the origin of these libraries; to arrive at a

simple answer, however, will

not be possible. Still, I can make three hypothetical statements concerning the founding of these libraries by referring to available data:



360 L&C/Endowed Municipal Public Libraries

(a) The intention of a patron bibliophile to turn his private book collec

tion into public domain is joined by the interest of the commune's public officials;

(b) The municipal administration takes the initiative to found a civic

library for public use or to acquire one already established;

(c) The administrative authorities, through the reallotment of library funds previously earmarked for institutions either discontinued or with

drawn from public administration, amalgamate these funds to found a

library and guarantee its operation.

It does not seem necessary to insist on establishing in all three cases in

what ways the component of public administrators is a determining element

in the founding, the institutional consolidation, the public aim, and the

functioning of these large libraries that are the subject of this discussion.

I have already described the complexity and lack of homogeneity in the

Italian library scene; providing some significant data regarding these insti

tutions is therefore relevant. The following analysis is based essentially on

a quasi-official report, the third edition of the Annuario delle Biblioteche

Italiane,l which, though needing a substantial periodic updating, can be

considered reliable regarding these libraries. In five substantial volumes it

provides data on the location and census, history, and situation of over

4,500 library institutions of diverse size, ranging from small basic libraries

to the national libraries, municipal, school, university, private, church,

and so forth. In such a varied scene, not always easy to access for purposes

of reference, the large public nonstate libraries constitute a small fraction

numerically, since they barely exceed fifty. But isolating them from the

other library institutions confirms that most lie in the northern and central

regions of Italy?Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto and Friuli, Liguria, Emilia

and Romagna, Tuscany, Marche, Umbria, and northern Lazio.

Even though such libraries are not representative numerically, their

importance is significant when considering more than the purely quantita

tive peculiarities of their patrimonies, lying mostly in ancient sources of

importance primary to the study of classical, medieval, and humanistic

culture. Using relatively recent if partial data makes it possible to evaluate

the accuracy of the previous statement in a particular

case showing all the

relevant factors; in Lombardy there are 1,223 municipal libraries, only 7 of which seem to show the characteristics we are investigating?Bergamo,

Brescia and Lodi (Milan), the Biblioteca Trivulziana of Milan, and Man

tua, Monza (Milan), and Pavia. The library patrimony of the municipal libraries in Lombardy, made up primarily of modern editions, contains

around 9 million volumes; the seven general historical libraries contribute

only 20 percent of that. But as soon as we move from that undifferentiated

figure to more specific investigations, we see, for example, that the collec

tion of ancient printed texts contained in those libraries makes up 53 percent



361

of the entire regional patrimony, and that the manuscripts make up 65

percent.2 This modest number of institutions plays a decisive role?through

the uniqueness and importance of their collections?in the overall existence

and fragmentary character of Italian libraries.

Origins

For a fair number of the large municipal libraries?more than half?

their origin is historically associated, from the moment of their founding, with the figure of a wealthy patron able to acquire a significant library col

lection, whether for reasons of personal erudition or mere bibliophilic

passion. It is not difficult to gather from the various examples mentioned

so far the evidence that allows us to sketch in such a patron's character.

Often enough the patron was a clergyman?in particular a prelate?al

though cases exist of laymen, nobles, and intellectuals. The patrons were

variously scholars able to amass a considerable quantity of books for study or interested collectors who accumulated rare and valuable ancient texts

using the most divergent criteria?ranging from focus on the history of a

particular place or

discipline to purely antiquarian motives.

Among the prelates who can be linked to the origins of several libraries,

especially noteworthy are Cardinal Nicola Forteguerri (Pistoia, 1473), Cardinal Nicola Antonelli (Senigallia, 1767), Bishop Francesco Cini

(Osimo, 1667), Monsignor Guarnacci (Volterra, 1786), Canon Giuseppe Bocchi (Treviso, 1769), Bishop Alessandro Sperelli (Gubbio, second half of the seventeenth century), Cardinal Decio Azzolini, Jr. (Fermo, 1688), Cardinal Angelo Maria Querini (Brescia, 1747), and Cardinal Giuseppe Furietti (Bergamo, 1760). But lay patrons also contributed decisively to the constitution of some libraries: Count Giovanni Maria Bertolo (Vicenza,

1696), Francesco Maria II della Rovere (Urbania, 1607), Count Giovanni Antonio Ruggiero (Municipal Library of Turin, 1687), Guarnerio d'Ar te gna (San Daniele del Friuli, 1466), Girolamo Tartarotti (Rovereto, 1746), Jurisconsult Alessandro Gambalunga (Rimini, 1619), the nobleman

Prospero Podiana (Perugia, 1582), and Luciano and Eleonora Benincasa

(Ancona, 1669 and 1749). Hence, if there was the potential patron wanting to make a

library col

lection open to the public and of general value, it was equally necessary to

have municipal authorities willing to accept the donation and guarantee its proper function. It is from the combination of these two indispensable

preconditions that these libraries arose and developed. The patron there

fore implicitly granted complete trust to the municipal administration and its ability to assume responsibility for the library's operation. Emphasizing these circumstances is not superfluous. It was

precisely the awareness of

public authorities' fastidiousness?at times due to several patrons' active




involvement?that provided an incentive to such gestures of magnanimity.

Under Spanish rule, when the authority of Milan's Senate was reduced to

formalities, Cardinal Federico Borromeo, lacking a suitable counterpart

from the Madrid government, was nevertheless able to open to Milan's

citizenry the Ambrosian Library, even though it remained technically under the archepiscopal curia's ownership.

The juridical procedures for the transfer of the library collections from

private ownership to public administration in the instances given here are

of two fundamental types. There was the testamentary bequest, as in the

cases of Guarnacci, Count Ottaviano Tartagna (Udine, 1856), Bocchi,

Antonelli, Count Fabrizio Rilli Orsini (Poppi, 1825), the priest Marc'An

tonio Maldotti (Guastalla, 1817), Furietti, and the Benincasas. Or the

transfer occurred titulo et causa donationis inter vivos, as in the cases of Querini,

Monsignor Andrea Zannoni (Faenza, 1804), Canon Giovanni Chelli

(Grosseto, 1860), Sperelli, the priest Gaetano Zucchi (Monza, 1862), Cini,

Marquis Luigi Malaspina di Sannazzaro (Municipal Library of Pavia,

1833), Podiani, Forteguerri, and Gambarotta.

According to circumstances, the bequest might also involve different

terms. In most cases the patron simply transferred his library collection in

its entirety without further condition to the municipality, leaving the matter

of location and operation to the public administrators. In others, the donor

committed himself to providing management and operating services be

yond the initial bequest. The bishop of Gubbio, Alessandro Sperelli, added

to the donation of his library collection real estate, whose rent was in part

devoted to financing the library's daily operation. After Bishop Francesco

Cini left his library to Osimo, the nobleman Ottaviano Guarnieri provided it with a custodian and an annuity for operating expenses. Francesco Maria

della Rovere provided the construction of a special building for the Urbania

Library, as Querini was to do at that same time for Brescia's library.

Among the various municipal libraries, some originated with the city

officials' desire to provide a service to their own community. In such cases,

the commune's commitment was decisive, the patron's donation being the

opportunity for the administration to assume a share in financial responsi

bility for making the original core library donation available and for later

additions to it. If such a private instigation was lacking, administrators

could directly take the initiative to provide this service "as a public utility to

the citizens." Most often the municipality would take over a private library

and make it available to the public, especially in the sixteenth and seven

teenth centuries, in those cases where there were good relations between

the academies and the public magistrates, thus facilitating the transfer of

academic libraries to the communes. The library of the Accademia Etrusca

of Cortona, founded in 1727, was acquired in this way by the commune

in 1788, as was the library of the Accademia dell'Arcadia of Trieste in 1793.



363

In more recent times there have been similar transferals. In Mondovi a

few citizens founded a private library open to the interested public in 1844, which became municipal in 1870; in 1935 Milan purchased the prestigious Trivulzio family collection, which goes back to the fifteenth century and

had been further expanded in the seventeenth century. There are other

cases of anomalous transfers of private libraries to the public domain: the

library of Forli was left by Count Antonio Albicini to the Priests of the

Mission, whose refusal of the inheritance allowed it to be taken over by the city administration. The library of the Accademia dei Concordi of

Rovigo, founded in 1580, was transferred in 1835 to the commune in a

joint ownership that lasts to this day. There are still other city libraries that

have arisen out of the independent initiative of the municipality, like

Velletri's library, whose existence was already documented in 1734;

Ferrari's, whose origins go back to judicial decrees in 1750; and, more

recently, Vercelli's, founded by the city administration in 1850.

The founding of other city libraries was due to the historical vicissitudes

of the Napoleonic conquest: it became customary in the republics formed

under the occupation of the French army to suppress monasteries and

convents. Their estates were often transferred to institutions of charity,

whereas the chattels were ordinarily sold. Of the latter only the books?with

different criteria from place to place?were disposed of either in part or in their entirety among already existing libraries, which thereby saw their

own holdings greatly increased. In some cases, however, libraries of re

ligious orders or congregations were

simply converted into municipal libraries: the library of the Fathers of the Oratory of Lodi, founded in 1645

and open to the public since 1791, became municipal at the proclamation of the Italian Republic in 1802. An analogous situation distinguishes the

library of Lugo, first owned by the Collegio Trisi, then assigned to the city after the suppression of the collegio in 1802. Elsewhere, in Bologna (Biblioteca Comunale dell'Archiginnasio), Ravenna (Biblioteca Classense), and Verona (Biblioteca Civica), the library holdings of the suppressed religious institutions were added to libraries founded ex novo.

A similar phenomenon occurred again after the proclamation of the

kingdom in 1861, when the church politics of the new state once more

brought about the suppression of religious institutions. Large library patri

monies, reconstituted by monasteries and convents during the Restoration,

were dispersed again into public ownership. During this period some new

libraries were established, such as the one at Fano, founded at the begin

ning of the 1700s and belonging to the Fathers of the Oratory, which later became a

municipal library. Another famous suppression, preceding both

the Napoleonic and the one carried out by the Italian state, lies at the origin of a number of large Italian libraries?the suppression of the Society of

Jesus ordered in 1733 by Pope Clement XIV; the library funds of the Jesuit




colleges were used to found the libraries of Macerata and Piacenza, besides

the Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense of Milan and the Biblioteca Governa

tiva of Cremona.

The Times

The period that saw the founding and consolidation of these libraries can be easily framed between the beginning of the 1500s and the end of the 1700s?that is, the last two centuries preceding the disintegration of

the old regime, such libraries remaining one of its finest achievements. If

we have to find reasons for the formation and character of this phenomenon, we must search for them in the characteristics of that society, where the

concepts and the practices of the modern state were still in gestation in

Italy.

It is true that there exists a previous tradition of founding libraries a

pubblica utilitd dei cittadini (for the citizens' public use), but their foundation

depended on either a prince's munificence (this provided many of the early national libraries) or liberality of the monks, as in the library of the Fran

ciscans of Cesena, opened in 1452 and modeled in its structure and mission on the Dominican library of San Marco in Florence.

The most favorable centuries for the appearance of these libraries seem

to have been the seventeenth and the eighteenth, periods of the greatest

progress in the dissemination and preservation of the written word, thanks

to the press.3 Those were consequently the times when intellectuals sensed

the need both to organize themselves and to collect the mnemonic and

cognitive means to set down what had been codified until that time, before

taking on the unexplored

avenues in the printed word. Libraries obviously

constituted a necessary means for a growing population of scholars and

literati, although most would not shine for originality, their efforts being

limited to the straightforward tasks of erudition. It was almost a spirit of

participation that motivated the patron as he became aware of and co

operated in those efforts leading to compilation and synthesis. The patron

was able to share the interests and motivations of those around him or at

least able to sympathize with their scholarly needs and would put at their

disposal his own library sources or finance other endeavors relevant to the

scholar's needs. This is, in fact, the reason for the founding of so many

distinguished libraries during these centuries. Those that have survived

until now and that are still fulfilling vitally the aim of their founders repre sent more than 64 percent of the institutions of their kind. A chronological list here might be useful.



365

Year of Year in which

foundation Place Notations it became public

1452 Cesena Already belonged to 1792 the Franciscans and

to the Malatesta

family

1466 S. Dainele del Guarnerio d'Artegna 1763 Friuli donates his 172 codes

1473 Pistoia Forteguerri wills his 1473

books and properties

Fifteenth Milan (Biblio- Already owned by the 1935

century teca Trivulziana) Trivulzio family

1580 Rovigo Accademia dei 1835

Concordi

1582 Perugia Founded by P. 1582 Podiani

1607 Urbania Founded by Francesco 1607

Maria II della Rovere

1608 Imola Founded by Cesare 1747

Lippi 1619 Rimini Founded by Alessan- 1619

dro Gambalunga

1645 Lodi Fathers of the Oratory 1802

1648 Ventimiglia Angelico Aprosio nineteenth

opens it to the public century

Seven- Gubbio Founded by Allesan- seventeenth teenth century dro Sperelli century

1667 Osimo Founded by Francesco 1667 Cini

1669 Ancona Founded by Luciano 1749 Benincasa

1674 Lugo Previously owned by 1802 the Collegio Trisi

1687 Turin (Munici- Founded by Count 1687

pal Library) Giovanni Antonio

Ruggiero






1688 Fermo Founded by Decio 1688

Azzolini, Jr.

1696 Vicenza Founded by Count 1696

Giovanni M. Bertolo

Eighteenth Fano Previously belonged 1861

century to the Order of the

Oratory

1725 Trento Founded by the heirs 1725

of Prince-bishop Gentilotti

1727 Cortona Previously owned by 1788

the Accademia Etrusca

1734 Velletri 1734

1747 Brescia Founded by A. M. 1750

Querini

1750 Fori! A. Albicini wills the 1750

library to the Priests

of the Mission, who renounce

1758 Siena Founded by Sallustio 1810

Bandini

1760 Bergamo Founded by Furietti 1760

1764 Rovereto Founded by Tartarotti 1764

1767 Senigallia Founded by Antonelli 1767

1769 Treviso Founded by Bocchi 1769

? Macerata Previously owned by 1773

the Jesuits

Eighteenth Piacenza Previously owned by 1773

century the Jesuits

1775 Genoa Founded by Berio, 1775

donated to Victor

Emmanuel I, who

willed it to the

commune



367



1780 Mantua Founded by Empress 1881

Maria Teresa, trans

ferred to the commune

1786 Volterra Founded by Guarnacci 1786

1792 Ravenna 1792

1792 Verona 1792

1793 Trieste Previously owned by 1793

the Accademia dell'

Arcadia

1795 Faenza Founded by Annibale 1795

degli Abati Olivieri

1796 Reggio Emilia 1801

1801 Bologna 1801

(Archigginasio)

1804 Faenza Founded by Andrea 1804

Zannoni

1810 Viterbo Founded by the 1810

Accademici Ardenti

1816 Livorno Previously owned by 1852 the Accademia

Labronica

1817 Guastalla Founded by Maldotti 1817

1825 Poppi Founded by Rilli 1825 Orsini

1830 Venice Founded by T. Correr 1830

(Correr Museum)

1833 Pavia Founded by Malaspina 1833

di Sannazaro

1839 Padua Founded by G 1839

Polcastro

1840 Savona Founded by the 1840

Societa Economica

Savonese






1844 Mondovi Founded by private 1870

citizens

1856 Udine Founded by Tartagna 1856

1860 Grosseto Founded by Chelli 1860

1862 Monza Founded by Zucchi 1862

1875 Vercelli 1875

Two Exemplary Cases

It is appropriate here to give the parallel histories of two exemplary libraries, the Biblioteca Augusta of Perugia and the Biblioteca Queriniana

of Brescia.

The first one was founded during that fortunate period that saw the

flourishing of libraries of this kind. In fact it dates back to 1582 and the

agreement between Prospero Podiana, a citizen of Perugia, and the city

priors that established the library. The second goes back to 1747 during the height of initiatives that made such libraries possible?times that also

presaged the end of those fortunate circumstances. Founded through the

will of the bishop of Brescia, Cardinal Angelo Maria Querini, this library

was furnished with a library patrimony and a splendid building especially

designed for it; three years later, in 1750, it was opened to public use.

Though founded more than 150 years apart, these libraries are still similar.

But one could not imagine two more dissimilar founders.

Podiani, a layman, belonged to Perugia's wealthy bourgeoisie. Although

he did not have extensive funds at his disposal?he was tied to family

obligations?he still put together, little by little, a sizable collection of both

manuscripts and printed books. As a bibliophile without any particular

specialization (it would be more appropriate to call him a collector), he

amassed many volumes by using all of his inheritance, keeping himself

up-to-date on the book market and prices and often resorting to question

able means to get the greatest number of books possible?his passion took

on the proportions of a mania.4 He was an original and bizarre character,

who seemed to prefer by far being in the company of his books to fulfilling his family obligations?even to the point of neglecting food and proper

grooming.

Querini, on the other hand, belonged to that nobility of wealth, power,

and intelligence that in previous centuries had made the Republic of Venice

glorious, but that was at this point moving toward its inevitable decline.



369

He took Benedictine vows in the Abbey of Fiesole near Florence and had a

brilliant ecclesiastic career. He was bishop of Brescia, then made cardinal, and was librarian (or protector) of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana for

over twenty-five years. His intellectual abilities were typical of eighteenth

century scholars; he was a fluent reader of ancient Greek and the editor of

Byzantine liturgical books and the letters of Cardinal Pole. In spite of his

various ministerial duties, such as traveling or holding clerical offices, he

found the time to cultivate correspondence, reading, and study. The library

he put together served his own interests, and its collections were both dis

criminating and comprehensive. In 1731 Querini, just appointed cardinale

prefetto, gave his private collection to Pope Clement XII to be placed in the

Vatican Library. Fifteen years later, when he was planning in Brescia "a

public Library ... for the benefit of all citizens of Brescia and eventually of all scholars," he asked Pope Benedetto XIV to return the books he had

previously given to his predecessor.5 Querini had begun construction on

a new wing of the Episcopal Palace for the new city library "to be devoted to a public library that will be divided into two floors, each one with a large lounge and three rather capacious rooms." In a public statement on 28

January 1747 he made known his intention to endow his own episcopal seat with the library, and the public deputies accepted his donation the same day. In 1750 the library, named after its founder, was opened to

the public.6

Podiani's relationship with the regents of his city seems to have been on

different terms. Whereas Querini's gesture was seen as an act of munifi

cence, so that the deputies of Brescia granted public recognition to him,

the relationship between Podiani and the priors of Perugia was one of

peers. Thus the public chancellor recorded on 23 December 1582 that Podiani's donation of his "maxima ornatissimaque bibliotheca ... ad

publicam tarn civium quam exterorum, qui ad hanc civitatem ratione

Studii confluunt, utilitatem'' was carried out with solemnity in the presence of the city priors. Whereas in Brescia Querini took care of the construction

of the library building, Perugia's administrators committed themselves to build a home for the library and provide a subsidy. In the case of Perugia's Biblioteca Augusta, the date of its founding is noteworthy, showing it to be one of the earliest Italian public libraries. More importantly, it still functions according to its original mission. Another important fact about this institution is an inventory of its acquisitions, available as the council

records, manuscript number 3081, in the Biblioteca Augusta.7

Hypotheses and Perspectives

These libraries, centuries after their origins?especially after World War

II?are increasingly inadequate given the rapid growth of Italian society.



370 L&CI Endowed Municipal Public Libraries

Although they arose and developed in most cases as "public libraries"?as

the term is used in Italy, that is, as publicly owned libraries open to all?

they were in actuality reserved to a narrow spectrum of users, because of

both the nature of their holdings and the particular services they offered

to patrons, who were?and still are?generally scholars and researchers

in historical and humanistic disciplines. The events surrounding these

libraries are in many cases similar: initially endowed with a library patri

mony notable for its antiquity, rarity, and value, they grew through acqui

sitions resulting either from the religious suppressions or from the donations

of scholars and generous citizens, and also due to careful and intelligent

acquisitions policies. These libraries for decades have offered their privi

leged visitors services equal to their expectations. Nevertheless, Italian

society's evolution has provoked a crisis in the libraries devoted to humanistic

studies, with the divergence between the services they have offered and

new emerging demands becoming more visible and profound.

A new kind of library, suitable for a modern society with its diverse and

broader needs in both knowledge and information?exemplified by the

"public library" [in English in the original text]?was and still is rare in

Italy and little known, except to those who work in that specific area.

During the last decades, however, a growing portion of society has?un

consciously?felt the need for such institutions, and the establishment of

general libraries outside previous library traditions has confirmed the

validity of these initiatives.

Such a demand, most frequent in centers already possessing large general

historical libraries, has created intense pressure for these changes and has

led general historical libraries into an undeniable identity crisis. These

two library models, responding to different demands, have found them

selves on a collision course and are faced with either a clear-cut separation

or the problems of an ill-conceived integration. In the first case the general

historical library would be reduced to a book museum; in the second it

would face the loss of its original identity. At the root of these tormenting doubts lie difficulties in isolating and articulating the peculiarities of both

kinds of services within a more or less conceptual framework and the in

adequacy of already existing structures, which are not suitable to the proper

function of a "public library" [in English in the original text]. The solution

to these complications, even so, should not be difficult: it would be a matter

of recognizing, in both models, specific characteristics and their precise

divergent aims, when looking for practical solutions.

Obviously, historical libraries should not only continue in their functions

as conservation and research institutions open to the public?in which

case their patrons would be not only local but national and international

as well?but should also grow and develop along the lines of their initial



371

mandate and identity. And in this case their unique holdings would select

their users, preserving them as libraries reserved for scholars.

The task of public administrators, along with executives in the public sector, should be to create, in addition to the historical libraries, general libraries for the public, whose functions would be information, documen

tation, study, updating, and reading, to be used without distinction of age or intellectual endeavor.

In the present crisis, which is affecting in different ways almost all of the

old library institutions arising from the former Italian city communes, the most courageous solution would be to make the above theoretical distinc

tion and then apply it in practice. This would ensure the continuity of these libraries' identity and function along historical lines.

Notes

1. Annuario delle Biblioteche Italiane (Roma: Palombi, 1969-1981). 2. About these data, updated to 1983, see Annuario delle Biblioteche Lombarde:

Biblioteche Comunali, Dati Relativi al 1983 (Milano: Editrice Bibliografica, 1985). 3. Bacon had already sensed the sudden and headlong flood of writing that

followed the invention of the press, which naturally converged on library shelves; his judgment on the content of the work of his contemporaries and predecessors seems too severe: "Quod si quis ab officinis ad bibliothecas se converterit, immensam

quam videmus librorum varietatem in admiratione habuerit, is examinatis et dili

gentius introspectis ipsorum librorum materiis et contentis, obstupescet certe in

contrarium; et posquam nullum dari finem repetitionibus observaverit, quumque homines eadem agant et loquantur, ab admiratione varietatis transibit ad miraculum

indigentiae et paucitatis earum rerum, quae hominum mentes adhuc tenuerunt et

occuparunt" (F. Bacon, Novum Organum, 1, aphor. LXXXV). 4. On the figure of Podiani, see the accurate and broad portrait that his con

temporary Giovanni Rossi (Janus Nicius Erythraeus) gives in the third part of his

work Pinacoteca imaginum illustrium, doctrinae vel ingenii laude, virorum, qui, auctore super stite diem suum obierunt (Coloniae Agrippinae, apud Jodocum Kalcovium et socios,

1612-1648), pp. 269-274.

5. On Querini and the entire episode, see the ample essay by V. Peri, "Querini e la Vaticana,'' in Cultura, religione e poUtica nelV eta di Angelo Maria Querini: Atti del con

vegeno di studi (Brescia, 1982), pp. 33-190.

6. See Atti spetanti alia fondazione e dotazione della Biblioteca Queriniana a pubblico

beneficio eretta in Brescia pubblicati per decreto degli illustrissimi Signori Deputati Bresciani

(Brescia: from the press of G. M. Rizzardi, 1747). 7. About the events concerning the Biblioteca Augusta of Perugia, see G. Cecchini,

La Biblioteca Augusta del Comune di Perugia (Roma, 1978). On the partial dispersal of

the biblioteca's most valuable manuscripts by Pope Paul V, who transferred them

to the Biblioteca Vaticana, see J. Bignami Odier, "Des manuscrits de Propero Podiani a la Biblioteque Vaticane," in Studi di bibliografia a storia in onore di T De

Marinis (Citta del Vaticano, 1964), vol. 1, pp. 91-134.



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