The Casanatense Library is one of the most well-known and appreciated state public libraries for the quantity and quality of the heraldic material preserved in both printed works and in the manuscript collection. The works, found through a systematic examination of inventories and catalogues, include manuals and treatises on heraldry (Italian, French, Spanish, English, German and Polish) including two editions from 1550 and 1579 of the first treatise by the illustrious jurist Bartolo da Sassoferrato De insignis et armis. There are also dictionaries, essays, periodicals, coats of arms, statutes of orders of chivalry, collections of emblems, family histories and genealogies of noble families and Italian and European royal houses, published from the 16th to the 20th century.
The manuscript collection
The first scholar who took an interest in heraldry was Luciano Gabriele Moricca, a librarian from Casanatense, who in the years 1947-1949 curated the cataloguing of 100 heraldic manuscripts in the magazine of the Collegio Araldico, thus providing a very useful basis for further studies and in-depth studies on the subject. The manuscript collection contains approximately 150 codices, many of which are of great value for their rarity and refinement of execution, and as many private and public documents of notable historical-diplomatic interest, some bound in volumes, others in the form of rolls. One of the most consulted manuscripts is the valuable eighteenth-century collection of Imprese ed emblemi delle Accademie d’Italia, rich in 243 emblems drawn and water-coloured with great care on the front of each sheet and accompanied by two cartouches bearing the motto and name of each Academy. Another very important historical-documentary source is the Collection of Cardinal Portraits, an 18th-century manuscript containing portraits of pontiffs and cardinals from the years 1153 to 1729. The portrait of each pontiff is followed by that of the cardinals he elevated to the purple, accompanied by the coats of arms of the pope and prelate, a handwritten caption and brief historical-biographical notes.
Read more:
G. Moricca, I manoscritti araldici della Biblioteca Casanatense di Roma. Catalogo, in Rivista del Collegio Araldico, 1947-1949
I manoscritti araldici della Biblioteca Casanatense, a cura di I. Ceccopieri e L. Giallombardo, Roma, Istituto poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 2000
Read also:
The catalogue of the Casanatense coats of arms
Consult: