e-mail us at: vivario@geocities.com A Record of Loans of Manuscripts and Printed Books, or: A Consumer’s view of the Vatican Library
The Vatican Library is a never-ending source of amazement. Though it’s one of the major depositories of manuscripts and printed books in the world, there was apparently no published record of loans originating from the library for the past four centuries or so. Non scribit, cuius carmina nemo legit ("You are no writer, if nobody reads your books") wrote Martial some 1,900 years ago; and at Kalamazoo 1998 Leonard Boyle ended his plenary session with the question, "What is more important: that a book be written, or that a book be read?"
To have a documented record of the circulation of a book - who read it, when, and where - is vital to understand the reception of a given work. This also applies, of course, to works of Cassiodorus or originating from Vivarium, and the Vatican Library has a Vivarian fund; not the only one, to be sure, but an important one. Thus, a history of loans from the Vatican Library is definitely relevant to the study of Vivarium. Maria Christine Grafinger, author of Die Ausleihe vatikanischer Handschriften und Druckwerke, vols. 1 and 2, credits Leonard Boyle with the idea of writing the history of loans of manuscripts and printed books from the Vatican Library seen "from the user’s side" (preface to vol. 1, page 1). The work will encompass the time from 1563 to the reign of Pope Leo XIII, in many ways a turning point for the library. Vol 1 appeared in 1993 as number 360 in the series "Studi e Testi," published by the Vatican Library. Vol. 2, which covers the 18th century, is now in the press.
If the stimulus for Dr. Grafinger’s research came from Father Boyle, at the time prefect of the Vatican Library, the work was all done by Maria Christine Grafinger. Volume 1 is impressive by any standards, but particularly for the ability to organize a great input of heterogenous data in a whole that is not only coherent, but a model of clarity and thoroughness. We can only agree with Leonard Boyle, who was quick to point out in his presentation of the volume that the Vatican Library is greatly indebted to Dr. Grafinger for the documentation of its role in the history of culture - not only Christian, but global. We must be thankful to the Vatican Library for bringing volume 2 to press: to read Vatican records from the age of Enlightenment should be enlightening in many ways.
It must be said that Leonard Boyle did more than provide Dr. Grafinger with an idea and a desk to write on. In one of his last notes as prefect, written on the 23rd of May 1997, two days before he moved on to San Clemente, Father Boyle left a record of a donation of a volume to the Vatican Library. The book was relevant to the history of loans being prepared by Dr. Grafinger and had belonged to the Library in the nineteenth century, but somehow ended up at an auction in north Italy. Father Boyle recognized the work for what it was, purchased it from the auction sale, as stated in his handwritten note, "personally out of my own pocket," and gave it to Christine Grafinger for her work on volume 2 of Die Ausleihe…, with the stipulation that eventually the volume should find its place in the "Archivio della Biblioteca as AB 53A.". Book, note by Leonard Boyle, and invoice from the sale (marked "paid") are now among the holdings of the Vatican Library.
Studi e Testi 385: Collectanea in honorem Rev.mi Patris Leonardi E. Boyle, O.P.
The 1999 catalogue of the Vatican Library announces yet another Festschrift in honor of Father Boyle’s seventy-fifth birthday, Collectanea in honorem Rev.mi Patris Leonardi E. Boyle, O.P., septuagesimum quintum annum feliciter complentis. The volume was published as Studi e Testi 385 (Città del Vaticano 1998, 744 pages, 95 fig., ISBN 88-210-0688-3) at the very reasonable price of Lire 150,000. We’ll tell you more when we receive a review copy.
Leonard E. Boyle O.P. - Paleografia latina medievale
White order forms for Paleografia latina medievale with the 34th International Medieval Congress Special (Italian lire 65,000 instead of the regular 95,000) will be available at the Congress in the registration area (Valley III). If unable to locate one, leave a note addressed to Societas internationalis pro Vivario on the bulletin board.
If not ordering Paleografia latina medievale at Kalamazoo, use the green order form available from the Societas internationalis pro Vivario, or contact QUASAR PUBLISHERS, Via Monte del Gallo 26/a, 00165 ROMA, tel. (39) 06634944, fax (39) 06634618, e-mail quasar@mail.xplore.it. Add Lire 17,500 for postage and handling. Accepted forms of payment: VISA, Mastercard, Eurocard, international money order or international bank draft.
Antonio Bosio - Roma sotterranea
Order from QUASAR PUBLISHERS (EDIZIONI QUASAR DI SEVERINO TOGNON S.R.L.). Address as above, but the special price until 30 June 2000 is Lire 350,000 (yes, sounds unbelievable), plus Lire 50,000 for postage and handling. After the 30th of June, 2000, the regular bookstore price will prevail: Lire 1,200,000.
Cassiodorus on Treasure Island
Well, almost. "L'isola del tesoro" is a bookstore in Catanzaro (Calabria), where Rev. Antonio Caruso S.J.
presented his new book, Cassiodoro nella vertigine dei tempi di ieri e di oggi, on the 10th of March,
1999.In attendance Guido RHODIO, president of the Istituto Internazionale per lo Studio di Cassiodoro
(Squillace). The publisher is Rubbettino. We'll tell you more when we receive a review copy.
Beatus Cassiodorus
The latest issue of Vivarium Scyllacense, journal of the Istituto Cassiodoro (Squillace), publishes "Beatus
Cassiodorus," by Luciana Cuppo Csaki, an essay that marshals some of the evidence on the veneration
for Cassiodorus in the Middle Ages. Order from the Istituto di Studi su Cassiodoro, Via Ss. Apostoli 4,
88069 Squillace (Italy): Vivarium Scyllacense VIII/2 (1997) 13-34.
e-mail us at: vivario@geocities.com
Updated: April 23, 1999
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