The collection
The collection of periodicals of the Casanatense Library includes approximately 1850 titles: almost all the Italian erudite newspapers are owned, from the first Giornale de’ letterati by Nazari and Ciampini of 1668, to the Giornale de’ letterati d’Italia by Apostolo Zeno of 1710, notices and gazettes or news newspapers among which the Diario ordinario d’Ungheria then Diario di Roma, known as Chracas, from the name of its printers, which came out every two or three days, of which the Library owns the complete collection and which is of extraordinary importance for the history of Rome from 1716 to 1848.
The European panorama
The ancient part of the collection also bears witness to the cosmopolitan role played by the Library up until the end of the 18th century, through the constant connection with the major European cultural production centers, especially Paris, Leipzig and The Hague. The French periodicals, such as the Journal des sçavans, the “Histoires” and the “Memoires” of the Academies, the Lettres édifiantes of the Jesuit missionaries in China from 1699, the periodicals of the Revolution and some English periodicals such as the Spectator by Addison and Steele, outline for the Casanatense a universal and multifaceted physiognomy that makes it one of the most important points of reference for scholars of the 18th century among Italian libraries.
The new accessions
In recent years, the choices made in purchasing periodicals have highlighted two main intentions: to document the “historical” interests of the Library by examining in depth topics such as theology, Thomism, the history of the Church, medieval history and the history of Rome, and to support, with numerous scientific articles, the knowledge and study of the bibliographical material present in the library’s funds.
Read more:
Catalogo dei periodici, a cura di A. Donato e P. Urbani, Roma, Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 1988
P. Urbani, Periodici, in La Biblioteca Casanatense, Firenze, Nardini, 1993, p. 311-313
Consult: