Important Libraries And The Medicci Family

Important Libraries and the Medicci family

One of the libraries that we must mention is the Bodleiana Library, the main research library of the University of Oxford. The Bodleian Library is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Great Britain occupies second place after the British Library. Together, Bodleian libraries contain more than 13 million printed articles.

First open to academics in 1602, it incorporates a previous library built by the University in the fifteenth century to house books donated by Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, said library is preserved until the middle of the S. XVI When documents are usurpted during the English reform, and it will not be until the end of that century with the reform of Thomas Bodley when it is established again and in 1602 its doors opens again, as well as between 1602 and 1610 news occurs within it, such as the appointment of the first librarian, Thomas James;a catalog printed with the contents of the library and an agreement that accredits the library as the legal depositary of the documents.

Once its history has been commented, it is interestingPrinted books, photographs. As well as your access, conservation and preservation through your laboratory. Therefore, it should be noted that beyond that it is a university library, its function in this type of heritage collections is of preservative function, therefore it is assumed that it is a heritage library.

Another library that also results in a heritage library is the well -known Trinity College Library, its history goes back to the establishment of the school in 1592 and is the largest library in Ireland, in 1801 it received the privilege of being a legal deposit that continues today.

Likewise, it has a special collection formed by more than 6.000.000 volumes, among which the manuscript of the Kells book that dates from the SS stands out. Vi -ix. In addition to having other documents of great patrimonial value, eastern, Irish, Latin Greek, times such as medieval, photographs, correspondence, etc.

On the other hand, it is also considered patrimonial for its access policy, reproduction, exposure or preservation conditions. For these reasons it is considered to be a heritage library.

And to end the heritage libraries located in European universities, another case that must be discussed is the Leyden Library in Germany, said library contains drawings ranging from the S. XV to this day, as well as 1200 manuscripts, archives and letters from the Middle Ages to the present both oriental and western and 514 printed ones of diverse theme but mainly about literature.

These collections are all digitized and available to the user and as already known, it is both a method of dissemination and preservation of the collection, so together with other policies that we have already mentioned above, we can prosecute how these collections are patrimonial and byThis, the Leyden Library also.

Another typology of heritage library is what is known as monastic. From the beginning of time, the Church has had in its possession a great cultural heritage that has been passing, not without penalties, to future generations. Therefore, we are going to talk about several monastic libraries in Europe that deserve recognition.

To begin with, we have the Ambrosian library in Milan. The Ambrosian Library, founded by Cardinal Federico Borromeo on September 7, 1607 and opened on December 8, 1609, was one of the first to allow access to anyone who could read and write. This library currently contains more than one million forces between incunable and books of the S. XVI, about 40.000 manuscripts of various languages and 22.000 engravings and other oddities as the institution calls, which includes ancient maps, musical manuscripts, scrolls and papiros. Likewise, it includes a series of requirements to consult the heritage collections as well as that the reproduction of these collections is prohibited, however, their digitalization is preserved through their consultation in the catalog, so we can affirm that the libraryIt is patrimonial. The case of this library is curious, both because it was constituted as a monastic library but also because currently, it is considered a museum library, therefore in it we can find several denominations of libraries, since one of them is the patrimonialits collection characteristics as for its access, conservation, reproduction requirements.

Another example of monastic library is Sankt Gallent, Switzerland. This library was founded in the year 613, the abbey was also declared a World Heritage Site in 1983. Within the classification they perform in it, we find 2100 manuscripts likewise another sub-collection regarding Zurich’s manuscripts, being approximately 2090 old book, the theme they have is mostly religious, however, we also find philology, history, medicine or medicineMathematics among its baldas.

Likewise, when it comes to Zurich’s manuscripts, they have an approximate collection of 40 titles, being 17 medieval manuscripts (until the S. XV) and 18 modern (from S. XVI onwards). On the other hand, they also have incunable, more than 1500, these documents that were acquired during the S. XV under the direction of Abad Ulrich Rösch.

On the other hand, other means of acquisition were purchases and donations of collections and private funds, in Sant Gallent highlights the heritage of the cleric Matthias Bürer who died in 1485, these collections as it can be deduced are of theological theme with some Latin classic. Also, they have a cartographic collection where you can find manuscripts, old engravings and collection of materials such as a balloon of the S. XVI, in relation to the dissemination of this material, an exhibition was made in 2007 with the most characteristic materials of this room.

Among other singularities of the heritage collection, we highlight the digitalization of the collection with the purpose of dissemination, the annual reports, control and organization of the collections, likewise, it stands out as all this joins in the Baroque room as defined by the librarymonastic-museum of Sant Gallen. As we see, both libraries that were constituted as monastic have passed over time to museum libraries both for the history of the same institution and by the heritage collection that houses is a clear example of heritage library.

Then you can mention some of the libraries with heritage collections and known as Museum Libraries. Navarrete states: “There are interesting historical examples of the interrelation between museums and its libraries. A previous example of a museum that links its library collections to exhibitions can be found at the Peabody Academy of Sciences in Salem, Massachusetts, at the end of the 19th century ”.

We make a quick history commenting that this type of heritage library with heritage collections begins in Europe in the S. XVIII, birth of great museums such as the British Museum in 1759, Belvedere Museum in Vienna in 1781 and the Louvre Museum in 1793. Already in the nineteenth century Victoria & Albert Museum (1852), whose library is currently the National Art Library.

These libraries contain not only monographic resources but also another type of material characteristic of museums, such as tapestries, sculptures, it also contains not only the heritage collections, but also conservation departments, loan, study rooms. That is, despite being highlighted as a museum, it has stays that are properly of libraries, policies and publications closely related to museums in relation to conservation, exhibitions that however, are also used in heritage libraries. We ended up commenting on the Bodmeriana Library, this library was founded in 1920 by Martin Bodmer and is famous for being the home of the Bodmer Papyros.

The main collection of the library is composed of about 200 western manuscripts and about one hundred orientals, around 2000 autograph documents and 270 incunables (one tenth of which are called rare and unique), in addition to the Papiros collection . Among the rare and printed works there are documents from 16th to the twentieth century and we highlight the Egyptian work of the book of the dead.

Another type of characteristic libraries are private with heritage collections. Since ancient times, influential characters have had their own collections for various reasons: to appear, for their love for reading, for their love to collect books, etc. That is why Reyes, noble, clergy have been protagonists of this type of collections.

Next we will address the Medici family, a family that was from the S. XIV until the 18th and that exerted a great influence during the Renaissance. This family began as a family of bankers who had a great reputation and respect from the beginning, likewise, its power increased first in Italy and then in the rest of Europe. From this family, there have been two queens, three potatoes and numerous Florentine leaders. Likewise, this family is also known for being patron and sponsoring artists since it had great sensitivity to the cultural world.

The well -known laurencian medical library, built during the S. XVI in Florence was designed by artists such as Miguel Ángel, Bartolomeo Ammannati and Giorgio Vasari. It has interest in both the documents that it retains and architecturally, so we can consider said heritage library. Even so, the great heritage collection that houses, which although quantitatively is not significantly important, is qualitatively. These funds are qualified according to documentary typology in:

• 11,000 manuscripts (to which 150 loose papers are added)
• 2,500 papyri
• 43 Ostraka
• 566 incunable
• 1,681 sixteenisavos
• 592 Publications of specialized periodic publications
• and a total of 126,527 printed editions (from the seventeenth to the twentieth century).

This library will serve us as a model to define the importance of documentary value. As indicated on the library website: “The particularity of the collections is to be almost entirely the result of a conscious choice that has favored antiquity, the philological value and the beauty of individual pieces."

We previously commented qualitative values. Patrimonial libraries are characterized by the specialty of the specimen. The notion of value is something that must be kept in mind when we qualify for a document as patrimonial. This value is indicated by two currents, on the one hand we have the intrinsic value of the document that is both the intellectual value of the document in which characteristics and authorship, aesthetic beauty, illustrations, notoriety of the work as well as by its level of rarity, artistic binding, annotations, ex libris are important in it and, on the other hand, their venal value that is usually characterized by the latest characteristics that we have commented a moment ago.

Therefore we have to take into account that when we talk about these collections, they are collections that have many, but all, of these characteristics, likewise, the venal value of the document also influences, which is the value of the market. The first editions, artistic beauty, its level of rarity due to the existence of few or a single copy are circumstances that will be taken into account when introducing a document in the circle that surrounds “the heritage collection”.

Once this point is clarified, we will begin by commenting that this collection began through the personal background of Cosimo Il Vecchio that at the beginning of the collection contained 63 documents (1417/1418) and that reached 150 in 1464. Likewise, her descendants also enriched her by giving the existing collection with illuminated manuscripts. But, they could not compare with Lorenzo Di Piero which, he added diverse documentation to the funds of the Greek section, likewise, he dedicated himself to ordering in the 80s copies of the texts destined to complete the library to turn it intoAn exhaustive research place. 

Through both donations and appropriations and acquisitions, this library is what it is today. A World Historic Monument.