Manoscritti Orientali

Item

Country

IT

Name of institution (English)

Estense Library

Name of institution (official language of the state)

Language of name of institution

ita

Contact information: postal address

Largo Porta Sant'Agostino 337, 41121 Modena

Contact information: phone number

0039 0594395711

Contact information: web address

Contact information: email

ga-esten@beniculturali.it

Reference number

Or.

Type of reference number

Former reference number

Title (English)

Oriental Manuscripts

Title (official language of the state)

Manoscritti Orientali

Language of title

ita

Creator / accumulator

Biblioteca Estense Universitaria

Date note

13th century/18th century

Language(s)

heb
ara
lat

Extent

71 storage units

Type of material

Textual Material

Physical condition

Good

Scope and content

The Manoscritti Orientali collection of the Biblioteca Estense comprises a small but rich collection of Hebrew, Arabian and Syrian manuscripts. The Hebrew manuscripts constitute the most significant part of this collection. They essentially include Bibles and liturgical and ritual works, but also works on Kaballah (2 codices), Philosophy (3), Linguistics (1), Medicine (1), Astronomy (2) and Miscellany (2). The collection also contains two ketubot.
A few of these manuscripts were produced by Jewish scribes in the Iberian Peninsula before the late-15th-century expulsion of the Jews. It is the case of a Hebrew Bible with Masora magna, parva and final, copied by Moisés bar José in 1470 (Cod. O. 5.9). This manuscript is comprehensively described by Carlo Berheimer in his catalogue of this collection (no. 4). The same catalogue also identifies and describes other Hebrew bibles written in Spanish script that could have been also produced in the Medieval Iberian kingdoms: Q. 4.14 (Bernheimer 1), O. 4.5. (Bernheimer, 5) and W. 5.14 (Bernheimer 8).

Archival history

The Manoscritti Orientali fonds was constituted over time without a defined planning and homogeneous criteria.
The first group of manuscripts that formed this collection came from the library of Alberto Pio, lord of Carpi and a bibliophile, who collected a rich collection of manuscripts and printed books. His library reflected his interest in Oriental languages and cultures, as well as in matters related to Magic, Medicine, Astrology and Religion. When Alberto Pio lost Carpi to the Este family in 1525, he moved to Rome, accompanied by his library. Without abandoning the aim of making his collection available to the public, he included in his will, on July 21, 1530, the condition that once Carpi was recovered, his collection would give place to a public library there. In 1564, after the death of Cardinal Rodolfo, Alberto's nephew and heir, the library was dispersed. Only the Greek and Oriental codices survived, which ended up being acquired by the Biblioteca Estense in the second half of the 16th century. An inventory of Cardinal Rodolfo's library composed in 1564 listed 22 Oriental codices (5 Hebrew, 11 Arabian, 2 Syrian and 4 whose language is not identified).
Another group of manuscripts derive from the Obizzi del Cataio's library. The Obizzi family had formed a rich museum and a precious book collection in the castle of Cataio, in the territory of Padua. In the 18th century, Tommaso Obizzi enriched the family library following his interests in Antiquary and an encyclopedic and cosmopolitical taste. By his will signed on June 3, 1803, he left his library and assets to Ercole III, who died a few months after him. Then, Obizzi's library was transferred to Modena and aggregated to the ducal library on April 18, 1817. A list of the manuscripts coming from Obizzo's inheritance indicates 17 Oriental codices.
Besides Pio and the Obizzi del Cataio's libraries, other smaller incorporations formed the current Oriental Manuscripts fonds of the Estense library. In 1762, canon Varesi, a Jewish convert, offered Francesco III a 16th century codice containing Mosè Cordoverso commentary on a Kabbalistic work (L. 1.1-16). In 1781, Laudadio Formiggini donated an Esther scroll in parchment (L. 2.2.(4)). The suppression of the Society of Jesus also contributed to the enrichment of the collection, with the incorporation of codices from libraries of the Jesuit colleges of Reggio, Carpi, Novellara and Mirandola. In particular, a rich collection of Greek, Latin and Italian manuscripts from the library of the Collegio di S. Bartolomeo in Modena il Tiraboschi was incorporated into the Estense library in 1773, whose collection also included some Hebrew codices (J. 9.12, Q. 9.17 and R. 7.25).
Indeed, the second half of the 18th century was marked by a new impetus of acquisitions. In the 1760s and 1770s, Era il Foà, a Jewish book trader from the Reggio Emilia community, provided the Estense library with numerous Oriental codices, acquired through his contacts within other European Jewish communities. In 1772, Ferdinando Ceppelli donated two Hebrew codices. Other Hebrew volumes that remained in his private collection also ended in the Estense library in 1908, after a donation from Edoardo Banzi, an engineer from Modena who had inherited Cepelli's library.

Administrative / Biographical history

The Biblioteca Estense is the dynastic library of the Este family. Its origins date back to the 14th century. Driven by the impetus of Marquis Niccolò III, it became an important humanistic library composed of precious literary, historic and artistic works. Its collection grew significantly during the Renaissance through the incorporation of valuable manuscripts and printed books by the initiative of the Dukes of Este. In 1598, after the loss of Ferrara, the library followed the Estense house to the new capital of the Duchy, Modena. In the following centuries, the Biblioteca Estense continued to be enriched with works of diverse provenance and type. The suppression of religious orders and the incorporation of the respective libraries in the Biblioteca collection contributed to the increase of its collection, as well as donations and acquisitions resulting from the initiative of illustrious librarians such as Ludovico Antonio Muratori and Girolamo Tiraboschi. Following the transfer to the Palazzo dei Musei, the Biblioteca Estense effectively merged with the Biblioteca Universitaria. The establishment of the Biblioteca Universitaria Estense dates back to 1995. It has been part of the Gallerie Estensi since 2015.

Access points: locations

Access points: subject terms

Access points: document types

System of arrangement

Currently, this collection is integrated into the manuscript collection (Fondo Estense) of the Biblioteca Estense, without a distinct numbering. Formerly, the volumes of this collection had the reference Or.

Links to finding aids

Author of the description

Carla Vieira, 2022

Bibliography

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Title Alternate label Class
Biblioteca Estense Universitaria Collections (official language of the state)