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Bookplate Index by Library or Collector |
Palatina Library
The illustration on the cover shows the bookplate of the Palatina
Library, located in the city of Parma, a beautiful historical town of
approximately 200,000 inhabitants, situated in northern Italy, seventy
miles southeast of Milan.
The Palatina Library was first named Reale Biblioteca Parmense and
its origin is described in a document dated 1 August 1761, which is still
in existence in the library. Duke Don Philip of Bourbon (1720-1765)
appointed the first "antiquarian and librarian" of the kingdom
in the person of Padre Maria Paciaudi (1710-1785), a Theatin monk and one
of the best-known scholars of his time. In six years Padre Paciaudi
collected 24,000 volumes, which represented a remarkable collection at a
time when the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris had approximately 180,000
volumes. The librarian organized the library material into six categories
according to their subject: theology,
nomology, philosophy, history, philology, and liberal and mechanical arts.
Paciaudi also created a catalog made of separate cards. This represented a
revolutionary technique at that time. Each card indicated author, title,
bibliographical and historical notes, and the location of the book on the
shelves. For the manuscripts and for the most important printed editions,
he added critical notes and had them bound with the book.
The Reale Biblioteca Parmense was inaugurated in 1769 by Duke
Ferdinando of Bourbon, son of Philip, in the presence of Joseph II, emperor
of Austria. Paciaudi made the inaugural speech.
After Paciaudi's death, in 1785, the library was directed by the
priest Ireneo Affo' from 1785 to 1797; the Jesuit Matteo Luigi Canonici
from 1798 to 1802; and the abbot Juan Andres from 1802 to 1803. It kept
its name and its status until, in accordance with Napoleon's decree, the
library became Biblioteca Nazionale di Parma in 1804 and Biblioteca
Imperiale in 1805. In 1806 the library became property of the city of
Parma and was given the name Biblioteca della Città di Parma. In 1814
Marie Louise, second wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, became duchess of Parma,
Piacenza, and Guastalla and, in 1818, decreed the return of the library to
the state under the new name of Biblioteca Ducale (best known as
Parmense). In 1820 the library was enriched with some collections taken
from the religious orders suppressed by Napoleon. It was during the reign
of Marie Louise and thanks to the scholarly contribution of Angelo
Pezzana, director of the library from 1804 until 1862 [sic], that
most of the precious collections, such as the De Rossi and Ortalli, were
purchased.
The library became Biblioteca Nazionale di Parma in 1861 at the
time of the unification of Italy, and Biblioteca Palatina in 1865 when it
merged with the "Fondo Palatino,'' the private library of the dukes
of Borbone-Parma.
It presently belongs to the Republic of Italy under the
jurisdiction of the Ministero per i Beni Culturali (Ministry for Cultural
Resources). Unfortunately the aerial bombing of 1944 destroyed 15,000
out of the 310,000 volumes of the library and badly damaged its site, the
Pilotta Palace. The Palatina Library reopened to the public ten years
later, in 1954. It is presently under restoration after the earthquake of
1981.
The site of the Palatina Library since its origin has been the
Pilotta Palace, an impressive construction started as a four-sided
building during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by the Farnese
family, rulers of Parma. Only three wings of the palace were completed,
since the area of the fourth side was occupied by the Church of San Pietro
Martire, together with the Dominican convent and the Tribunal of the
Inquisition. The church and its annexes were later destroyed by order of
Napoleon Bonaparte. That area remained open, although other sections were
added to the Pilotta Palace at different times by various architects.
Worth mentioning is the The
library collections were first housed in the south gallery of the palace,
named Petitot Gallery after the French architect Ennemond Petitot
(1727-1801), who custom-designed the wooden shelves. The same area served
as reading room. During the 1830s the construction of the new reading
room, called "Marie Louise,'' was completed. The magnificent Empire
decor included a statue of the empress made by Antonio Canova (1757-1822).
The old Librarian's Hall was decorated at that time with encaustic paintings
representing scenes of the Divine Comedy by Francesco Scaramuzza
and called Dante Hall. The Palatina Library holds general collections with a particular emphasis
on the culture of Parma. It has the right of legal deposit, established by
Marie Louise, for each book published and edited in the province of Parma.
At the present time the library collection includes more than 600,000
volumes and pamphlets, 3,000 incunabula, 5,000 manuscripts, 60,000
engravings, and 5,000 microfilms. Yearly subscriptions to current
periodicals number 313 and the main collecting areas are fiction, cinema,
theater essays, and historical, philosophical, social, and economic
sciences. However,
the real wealth of the library lies in its ancient and rare collections.
Valuable manuscripts include five Greek religious books of the eleventh
century, the autograph of Piero della Francesca called ''De Prospectiva
pingendi," on paper with drawings by the painter, and a copy of the Divine
Comedy, dated only fifty years after the death of Dante. The
Beccadelli Archives is an essential tool for the study of the Council of
Trento. Also important are the De Rossi,
Ortalli, Lope de Vega, and Comedias de Diferente Autores collections. The
last two refer to the "Siglo de Oro" of the Spanish theater and
were brought to Parma from Paris by Louise Elisabeth, the wife of Don
Philip of Bourbon and daughter of Louis XV, king of France. The
Ortalliana, with its 40,000 pieces, is considered one of the best
collections of engravings existing in Italy. It was purchased and donated
to the library by Duchess Marie Louise. Another gift of the empress that
became the jewel of the Palatina Library is the Collection De Rossi, also
called the Hebrew or Oriental collection. The 1,700 manuscripts and 1,442
prints of rare Hebrew books belonged to Giovanni Bernardo De Rossi
(1742-1831), a professor of Oriental languages at the University of Pisa
and the first bibliographer of Hebrew incunabula. The
oldest
bookplate of the Palatina Library is reproduced on the cover. It is a
round medallion, with a diameter of approximately 7.7 cm, which represents
the interior of a library. Pictured in the middle of the medallion is the
statue of Apollo Palatino with the Bourbon lilies on the plinth. On the
edge appear the words "Apollini Palatino Sacrum" (sacred to
Apollo Palatino, the god of science) and in the exergue the words
''Bibliotheca Regia Parmensis." A
similar bookplate reproduced at the end of this essay was in use from 1796
to 1800. The design was the same, but the inscription in the exergue was
changed to "Bibliotheca Pubblica Parmensis" in accordance with
the name of the library at that time. Also, the Bourbon lilies were
removed and the plinth left empty. The
bookplate for the Biblioteca Regia Parmensis was commissioned by Duke Don
Philip of Bourbon, son-in-law of Louis XV, to the French artist Hubert
François Bourguignon, called Gravelot (1699-1773). Gravelot was
a
painter and a designer, who started his career as a pupil of Francois
Boucher. After painting portraits and war scenes, he became famous for
his illustrations of the works of Shakespeare and Boccaccio and as a
portrait caricaturist. He was well-known among London artists—Thomas Gainsborough worked for him as an assistant. Some of Gravelot's drawings
are presently owned by the British Museum. The
original drawing by Gravelot was for a number of years the property the
Library of Congress. During the course of this research it was not
possible to determine either when or for what reason it was taken to
Washington. The bookplate was returned to the Palatina Library on 6 June
1970 when it was presented to its director, Dr. Angelo Ciavarella. Sandra da
Conturbia, Texas A & M University References Annuario delle biblioteche italiane. Roma: Fratelli Palumbo Editori, 1981, vol. 3, pp. 238-245. Ciavarella, A. Notizie e documenti per una storia della Biblioteca Palatina di Parma. Parma, l962, pp. 7-44. Farinelli, L. "Cenni storici sulla Biblioteca Palatina." In La medicina nei secoli: Mostra e catalogo bibliografico. Parma, 1979, pp. 9-17. I
wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Angelo Ciavarella former director of
the Palatina Library and presently president of the Bodini Museum, and to
Dr. Leonardo Farinelli, curator of the Department Manuscripts and Rare
Books of the Palatina
Library for their
invaluable help and assistance while I was in Parma. [Originally published in Journal of Library History, vol. 26, no. 4 (Spring 1991): 608-610.] |
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