Jesuit Libraries

Often our researchers are looking for the catalogues of the libraries that were present, in ancient times, in the colleges and residences of the Society of Jesus. These instruments are absent now, but it is still possible to understand what books were available to the fathers and brothers in the residences, colleges and works.

The Antique Books Fund

Many of the texts that populated the libraries of the colleges and residences between 1540 and 1830 are today in the Antique Books Fund. This is a project initiated a few years ago by the Province, which has brought together all the texts of the ancient libraries in three main centres: Gallarate, Naples and Palermo. You can consult the opac of the library complex.

In addition, a digital showcase has been set up in which about a hundred rare texts can be found, digitised and freely consulted.

Documents and drawings used as bookmarks were found in many of these books.

Antiquarian books are defined as all those published before 1830. After this date, thanks to the advancement of technology and lower raw material costs, it was possible to publish books in hundreds of copies. The texts then became within the reach of a larger number of people and we speak of modern books.

When we refer to the Antique Books Fund, we are not talking about the entire book heritage that the Society owned in Italy. In fact, due to the suppression of 1773 and the process of national unification, the Provinces lost their properties and with them their archival and book heritage, which became State property. A large part of the Italian book heritage preserved in public libraries, especially national ones, comes from the libraries of the Society of Jesus. The Antique Books Fund therefore preserves only a part of the ancient and vast book heritage of the Society in Italy.

The Libraries of Residences and Colleges

Over the years, some researchers have approached our archive to ask to consult the library catalogues of the libraries. In reality, these catalogues are absent, and are not material destined for the archive, but accompany the library collection that is not destined for the historical archive. In fact, we have a few lists of texts in the files of residences and colleges because their library was to be transferred, forfeited or because the Jesuits had decided to purchase texts. Now that the reorganisation of the collections is well advanced, we can account for some lists of books from residences that have been closed for some time. These include: a list of books and manuscripts existing in the library of the novitiate in Cagliari and Sassari in the mid-nineteenth century. There is also a catalogue of printed books from the library of S. Ambrogio in Genoa from the early nineteenth century, lists of books from the library of the Arici Brescia boarding school transferred to the diocese, the catalogue of texts from the seminary in Fiume.

These are not structured catalogues but lists of texts, such as the one we have chosen to explore in today’s episode concerning the library of the S. Giuseppe recreation centre. Before we read together what texts were available to the children of the recreation centre, let us briefly look at the places where the libraries were housed.

In the archive funds of boarding schools and residences, we can also find papers concerning the construction or modernisation of libraries: construction of suitable spaces, orders for shelving and texts required for the apostolate. Furthermore, in the photographic funds we can find photos of the libraries set up in the colleges or novitiates.

In this way, it is possible today to see where the library of a boarding school or residence was located and how the study environment was organised.

The library of the St. Joseph recreation centre

The St. Joseph recreation centre was founded by Fr. Strickland in the early 20th century. Among the papers produced by the work, we also find a catalogue of library books for the children.

We know from other sources that the Jesuits frequently purchased material for the activities for the children, in the colleges but also in the religious schools – balls, props for the theatre, rental of musical instruments. However, in the inventories of goods or in the expenditure registers we rarely find details of the books purchased: the titles and authors are missing.

This catalogue is particularly interesting because we can read what books were available to the children at the recreation centre and into how many sections the book collection was divided.

What did the children at the recreation centre read?

Doing some research from this small catalogue of books, one makes interesting discoveries. There is no shortage of female authors, such as Maria di Gardo who signed the novels: ‘La via dolorosa’, ‘Ines’, ‘Amore ed arte’, ‘Brutta!’ or such as Edvige Sandrinelli ‘Luci dell’anima’ – many of these published in the collection Romantica Biblioteca Speirani – or Gemma Giovannini’s novels: ‘L’ultima rosa’, ‘Dopo un verdetto’, ‘Predestinata’, ‘Il tesoro’. Then there are Amalia Rossi ‘’In casa d’altri”, or Flavia Steno “L’istitutrice del Baronetto inglese”. Among the short stories is Grazia Deledda’s ‘Le tentazioni’. Further we need more researches to understand whether the texts were donated or specially purchased by the Jesuits for the library.

Some texts that are still in libraries today and many among us have read them in our childhood: Salgari, in the library, the boys had “Il re della montagna”.

Together with the photographs, the magazines ‘L’eco del ricreatorio’ and ‘l’Angelo del Focolare’ this catalogue gives us a closer insight into the daily life of the children. We hope that in the future someone will take an interest in the history of this library and will be able to discover its genesis and its users. The small catalogue lists more than 250 works including books, stories, novellas and magazines divided into different categories: novels, adventure travels, morals, ethics, current affairs, history, didactics, biographies, ascetics, dogmatic, mysticism, sketches, languages, logic, mathematics, agriculture.

Travelling libraries

In addition to the large libraries of novitiates, colleges and residences, there were also so-called itinerant libraries. These were books for entertainment, educational or pedagogical purposes. The travelling libraries were available to groups of workers, members of fraternities or neighbourhoods that did not have a stable location but could move around.

We found traces of this, for example, in the journal of the Maximus Institute. Now, the archival documentation has not yet returned any material on this, but it is possible that further information on this activity of the boys are in the historiae domus, in the house diaries and in the correspondence of the institute, the collection of which is in our historical archive. This particular aspect of boarding school libraries deserves further investigation by our researchers.