The Angelica Library’s antique collection consists of more than 100,000 volumes published between the 15th and 19th centuries.
There are approximately 1,100 incunabula, including: Cicero’s De Oratore, the first book printed in Italy in Subiaco in 1465 (Inc. 505/3), St. Augustine’s De Civitate Dei, printed in Subiaco in 1467 (Inc. 149), a copy of the first Italian edition of Pliny’s Historia naturalis printed in Venice in 1476 (Inc. 530), a copy of the first edition of the Divine Comedy, printed in Foligno in 1472 (Inc. 448), and Francesco Colonna’s Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, printed by Aldo Manuzio in Venice in 1499 (Inc. 590).
There are approximately 20,000 cinquecentine books, including a rare edition of Orlando Furioso, published in Ferrara in 1521 (Rari I.3.1) and Camillo Agrippa’s Trattato di scientia d’arme, published in Rome in 1553 (Rari I.5.1).
The volumes by Angelo Rocca
The first substantial collection consists of volumes left in the late 16th century by Angelo Rocca to the convent of Sant’Agostino. These include Aristotle’s Opera omnia in the editio princeps by Aldo Manuzio, 1495-1498.
The volumes of Lucas Holstenius
In 1661, approximately 3,500 volumes were added, which Lucas Holstenius (1596-1661) left to the Library, including several works by the greatest ancient and modern geographers, which he had densely annotated.
The volumes by Enrico Noris
In the first half of the 18th century, special authorisation to possess prohibited books allowed works that were subject to censorship and forbidden to read to be preserved, such as the prestigious library collection of Enrico Noris (1631-1704), comprising around 600 volumes.
The volumes by Domenico Passionei
In 1762, the rich library of Cardinal Domenico Passionei (1682-1761) was acquired, containing rare books, incunabula and volumes on various subjects.
The volumes of the Massimo family
Between 1883 and 1884, the library of Prince Camillo X Carlo Alberto Massimo (1836-1921) was purchased. The sales contract was drawn up between the then director of the Angelica Library, Ettore Novelli, and the bookseller Cioffi, who was in charge of the sale. In March 1883, the 158 printed volumes (containing approximately 428 works relating to the 16th-19th centuries, bearing witness to the social, political and cultural life of Rome) were recorded in the Angelica Library’s chronological entry register.
For the Massimo family collection owned by the library, you can consult the catalog in PDF
The Bodoni collection consists of 540 items documenting the work of the Parma-based printer Giambattista Bodoni from his early years onwards. Most of the works were purchased in 1919 by the Venetian count Nicolò Papadopoli, adding to the original group of about 50 Bodoni editions already present in Angelica since the late 18th century thanks to the interest of the Augustinian father Agostino Giorgi, prefect of the library from 1752 to 1797, who was an admirer of the work carried out by the young Bodoni at the Propaganda Fide Printing House.
Among other works, the Library possesses a copy of Epithalamia exoticis linguis reddita (1775), containing a dedicatory inscription to Father Giorgi, the Alphabetum Tibetanum (1762), written by him, and the Euchologion (1764), works published by the Propaganda Fide Printing House and valuable evidence of the young Bodoni’s apprenticeship in Rome.
For the Bodonian collection owned by the library, see the PDF
The Santangelo Collection and Opera Librettos
The collection of Nicola Santangelo (1785-1851), Minister of the Interior of the Kingdom of the Bourbons between 1831 and 1847, arrived at Angelica between 1873 and 1886 during the years of the transition of management from the Augustinians to the Italian State.
The most conspicuous part of the collection consists of about 1,000 opera libretti bound in volumes together with comedies, tragedies and translations of French plays, which make up the theatrical section of the collection. Additional volumes containing academic reports and memoirs, excerpts from the proceedings of the Pontaniana Academy, the Society of History and Antiquities, or the Ercolanese Academy, in the form of pamphlets rarely exceeding 50 pages, provide an overview of 18th-century Neapolitan scientific and literary scholarship.
The libretto texts date back to a historical period ranging from the first half of the 18th century to the second half of the 19th century. Together with a group of about 60 comedies, farces and one-act plays written for the Neapolitan mask of Pulcinella, they are a valuable testimony to southern Italian musical culture, particularly that of Naples.
For the collection of opera libretti, please consult the PDF file.
The Angelica Library among its collections has an important collection of statutes relating to the city of Rome.
These are volumes and pamphlets dating chronologically from the 16th to the 19th century.
At the end of the 19th century, an inventory was drawn up of this material, listing 1,351 items with the works arranged by “keyword” under the confraternity or organisation, with an indication of the title, place, year of printing and location. Many of them relate to religious congregations that developed after the Council of Trent, with the specific aim of supporting the Catholic faith threatened by the spread of Protestantism; others relate to arts and crafts and illustrate daily life in Rome in past centuries.
(Check the PDF version of the Statutes in Catalogues – Manuscripts – Other available tools – Headquarters and in Catalogues – Ancient Collection – Other available tools. It should be removed or ended on page 470: after page 470, nothing can be read!)
Ancient Periodicals Collection
There are more than 150 antique periodicals preserved, mainly dating from the second half of the 17th century to the first half of the 18th century. These are often complete copies, which to a certain extent are only available in Italy or Rome at the Angelica Library.
Alongside a clear prevalence of scholarly journals, the bibliothèques savantes, and literary journals such as the Mémoires de littérature (1715-1717) or the Mémoires historiques et critiques (1722), the collection also includes general news journals, historical and political magazines, specialised journals, mercuri, gazettes and newspapers such as the Spectator or Choix littéraire.
Worthy of note is the collection of French-language magazines and newspapers published in the Netherlands by French Huguenots following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685).
The original and largest collection of periodicals preserved in Angelica belonged to Domenico Passionei’s private library.
The Angelica Library holds a large collection of prints, either loose or bound in volumes.
Angelo Rocca’s library contained a modest collection of prints documenting the varied interests of the Augustinian bishop.
During the French occupation, from 1799 to 1804, items were stolen from the print collection.
Among the acquisitions and gifts of the 19th century, it is worth mentioning the Iconographia Michaeliana, an interesting collection of prints relating to the Abbey of Mont Saint Michel (approximately 480 pieces).
