Patrimonio librario antico e biblioteche religiose. Il caso della Sardegna

Giovanna Granata

2020-01-01

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Abstract

The essay examines the distribution of the ancient book heritage in the libraries of Sardinia, where, apart from the cases of the two University Libraries of Cagliari and Sassari, the most significant institutions in terms of ancient collections are the religious libraries. The importance of religious libraries for library historiography is one of the key topics in the disciplinary debate, and from the specific context of Sardinia, it is possible to develop some points for reflection. The essay highlights the need to also approach the study of religious collections from a historical perspective, in relation to the notion of a system. Individual entities, often small in size and deeply rooted in local areas, should be understood as local branches of a complex library organization, which is unsurprisingly based on centrally defined rules, whether at the ecclesiastical level or within a religious Order. On this basis, the case of the Library of the Capuchins in Cagliari, one of the most important in Sardinia in terms of the number of ancient volumes, is explored, examining the dialectical relationship between local microcirculation phenomena and adherence to the cultural paradigms of the Order.