Publisher Description

This book takes a long-term approach, spanning from the end of the 16th to the end of the 19th centuries, to explore how men and women in Italy, France, and Spain collected, displayed, and passed down various types of papers.The contributors share a core interest in the relationship between social actors and their paper heritage. The collectors, who come from diverse cultural, social, and gender backgrounds, provide insights into the reasons and processes behind the accumulation, valorisation, and transmission of their paper heritage. Unlike most studies on collecting, this book shifts the focus away from collections and institutions to the owners of the collected objects and their desires for their accumulated papers. This volume covers three centuries and provides insights into the aspirations of collectors and the fate of their papers after transmission. It takes place against the backdrop of major social, political, and cultural changes affecting the Italian peninsula, the Spanish monarchy, and France. The cultural interests and the collector networks often extended beyond Europe, as noted by many of the essays in this volume.Paper Heritage in Italy, France, Spain and Beyond (16th to 19th Centuries) will interest scholars and students of Early Modern and Modern European History across various fields, including social and cultural history, intellectual history, gender history, history of collecting and patronage.

Author Biography

Benedetta Borello is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Cassino. She has been a fellow at the EUI (Florence), the Italian Academy (Columbia University NY) and MIAS (Madrid). Her research activity is focused on the history of the élites, family history and gender history, network analysis, and the public sphere. She is the author of Trame sovrapposte. La socialità aristocratica e le reti di relazioni femminili a Roma (XVII–XVIII secolo) (2003), Il posto di ciascuno. Fratelli, sorelle e fratellanze (XVI–XIX secolo) (2016), and L'apprentissage de Rome à la Renaissance. Officiers à l'ombre de la Curie (xve – xviie siècle) (2021). Laura Casella is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Udine. She has been visiting Professor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris and in Marseille. Her main research interests concern the political and cultural role of élites, the history of border areas, family history and gender history. She is the author of I Savorgnan: la famiglia e le opportunità del potere, secc. XV–XVIII (2003), "Per parlare da fratello a fratello". Famiglia e carriere nelle lettere di Pompeo ed Eusebio Caimo, 1588–1640 (2022) and co-editor of Construire les liens de famille dans l'Europe moderne (2013).

Table of Contents

Borello and Casella, Introduction / Part I Linking networks through pages: men of letters and their friends / Volpini, From Florence to Salamanca and back: the collection of books and manuscripts of Girolamo da Sommaia (early 16th century) / Valeri, "Un ricchissimo gioiello di Roma". Creation, visibility and dispersion of the Cassiano dal Pozzo library between Rome and Europe / Montcher, The Library of the Baroque Republic of Letters / Part II Collecting papers to leave a mark: physicians, scholars and clerics / Brevaglieri, Japanese papers for Baroque Rome: Angelo Rocca's library: missionary networks and urban perennialisation / Borello, Coffers and shelves for the next generations. The destiny of Paolo Beni's papers / Casella, Who was Pompeo Caimo's library intended for? Family use and public endowment of a 17th century physician's and polygraph's book collection / Chapron, Dead men's papers. The patrimony of scholarly papers in 18th century France / Part III Collecting papers to leave a mark: technicians and jurists / Favino, The books of the 'invisible technician' Gaspare Berti (1601-1643): a wealth of knowledge in Baroque Rome / Feci, Jurists' Libraries in 17th Century Rome / Part IV Papers to create a museum: wishes and aspirations of noble patrons and other donors / Mazzetti di Pietralata, The agent and the connoisseur: self-attribution of roles in and around the Savelli painting collection through their letters / Moralejo, The legacy of Catalina de Mendoza to the Colegio Máximo / Borean, Art libraries and art collecting in Venice in the 18th century. The Manfrin library / Fiorelli, From private collection to shared heritage. An aristocratic donation in 19th century Naples / Jornet Benito, Two women writers within the walls of a library-museum. A documentary legacy in 19th century Spain.

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