In occasione dell’anniversario della morte di Clemente XI (Giovanni Francesco Albani, 1649-1721) la Catholic University of America (CUA, Washington D.C.) ha gentilmente messo a disposizione in formato digitale alcuni preziosi volumi che un tempo facevano parte della biblioteca Albani e sono ora conservati presso la CUA.

Si ringraziano tutti i colleghi della CUA che hanno collaborato al progetto di digitalizzazione e, in particolare, Shane MacDonald (Special Collections Archivist, CUA), che ha sempre generosamente sostenuto il progetto Disiecta membra. Tracing the History of the Albani Libraries, così come aveva già fatto Lenore Rouse (CUA) in occasione della digitalizzazione del catalogo Albani Bibliotheca Albana Urbinas ordinatim composita et duplici librorum elencho locupletata (1720).

Si ricorda che i due cataloghi Albani conservati alla CUA ora a disposizione in formato digitale sono quelli descritti da Bernard M. Peebles nel suo articolo Urbino imprints in Washington («Italia Medioevale e Umanistica», 11, 1968, p. 331) come Cataloghi B e C:

“Catalogue B (of the year 1720)”, corrispondente al volume Bibliotheca Albana Urbinas ordinatim composita et duplici librorum elencho locupletata

“Catalogue C (of the year 1803 or later; two volumes)”, corrispondente ai due volumi Series Librorum Bibliothecae Albanae Quae Urbini est.

Resta da digitalizzare il “Catalogue A (early eighteenth century)”.

I due volumi che raccolgono la lista delle opere presenti nella Clementine Library della CUA (redatta a Washington nel 1930-33, Accession Ledger, vol. I e II) permettono per la prima volta di studiare nel dettaglio la consistenza della collezione Albani venduta da Guglielmo Castelbarco Albani (1901-1975) alla CUA nel 1928.

Una descrizione della Clementine Library è disponibile sul sito della CUA: https://libraries.catholic.edu/special-collections/rare-books/clementine.html

Vedi anche www.archivioalbani.it/index.php

The aim of the Albani Archive Project is to facilitate the free and open consultation of its contents by means of comprehensive digital reproduction and a proper inventory of the highly significant historical documents handed down by the Albani family of Urbino. The Collection includes the private archives of Pope Clement XI (Giovanni Francesco Albani).
The idea of carrying out this undertaking may be  attributed to the determination of one of the owners of these important documents, Count Clement Castelbarco Albani, who - in collaboration with professor Antonio Brancati, Director of the Biblioteca e Musei Oliveriani until 2009 - devised a way to render these precious archives accessible to the general public.
At that time the Biblioteca Oliveriana was chosen as the institution that would host the project and be the main site for all its activities.  To assure correct management of the work - once the Archives Superintendent for the Marche Region had approved the project – an Agreement was signed by Count Albani and the President of the Ente Olivieri.
The documents that make up the Collection are of a diverse nature and type, and had at that point remained for numerous decades at the Villa Imperiale in Pesaro, i.e. the residence of the last Albani heirs.  Its contents include eight large zinc chests inside of which are thousands of perfectly preserved documents belonging to the family.  In the past the Archive was housed in the family library in the Palazzo Albani in Urbino. Then, when that prestigious building was sold to Luigi Renzetti in 1915, its contents were transferred to their present location.
The Collection has never been entirely organised or studied; at present the only existing description of its contents is a summary carried out in 1939 by a member of the Vatican’s Apostolic Library.  References to it are also present in the volume published by Francesco Canuti, Catalogo dei manoscritti che esistevano in Urbino nella Biblioteca del Papa Clemente XI (Giovanni Francesco Albani) con notizie sull’origine della Famiglia Albani e la descrizione del Palazzo degli Albani in Urbino. This volume was set and published by the Rossini Typography in Fano in 1939, but concerns only the documents in the Collection relating to the history of Urbino.
The Albani Archive Collection comprises diverse types of documents: private letters of a confidential nature, letters expressing congratulations and seasonal good wishes, official letters, letters chronicling events, letters begging for favours or assistance, memoirs, administrative documents, musical scores, and treatises.   Important information concerns the origins of the Albani family and its involvement in the most important historical events occurring between the 16th and 18th centuries, the history of the ancient Duchy of Urbino and how it was eventually annexed to the Stato Pontificio (the Vatican State).  A further highlight is Pope Albani’s relations and interactions with the Roman Catholic world.  Moreover, of particular importance are the books filled with notes, volumes of school exercises and details of instructional methods.
The digitalisation of these documents has been completed, and the inventory thereof carried out; the latter will soon be published on this site.  At the end of the entire project it will be possible to directly consult the digitalised contents of the Albani Archive from the present page.  Readers will thus gain access to all the documents in the Collection.  At present the online digital collection already includes about 120,000 images from documents contained in the first three zinc chests.

Thousands of manuscripts and printed books originating in the Albana Urbinas and Albana Romana are currently kept in public and private libraries in Europe and the United States (see: Le biblioteche della famiglia Albani on this site). Many others have been lost, even if it is not rare to find precious volumes on the antiques market that had long been considered gone.
The project Disiecta membra. Tracing the history of the Albani Libraries, devised and lead by Brunella Paolini and Antonio Becchi, aims to collect and make available to scholars information concerning the works that made up the Albani Libraries, in order to map their present locations.
Particular attention will be dedicated to manuscripts, and among them, to those connected with the scientific environment that prospered around Federico Commandino (1509-1575) and Guidobaldo del Monte (1545-1607). In the long-term the project intends to compile a digital library, to showcase the copies of the manuscripts that are still preserved.
We would like to thank all those who wish to support this project by providing any information useful to the identification and conservation of the works that originated in the Albani Libraries.

Contacts:

Antonio Becchi becchi@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de

Brunella Paolini ente.olivieri@oliveriana.pu.it 

Translation courtesy of Catherine Farwell Calcagnini