The Library of the Augustinian Priory of S. Stefano di Prato, ca. 1300
Medieval inventories often provide the best available evidence about the holdings and organization of libraries that long ago ceased to exist. While most book inventories are quite primitive by modern standards of bibliographic control, they deserve publication as valuable documentation for the hist...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Cambridge University Press
1998
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| In: |
Traditio
Year: 1998, Volume: 53, Pages: 131-148 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Medieval inventories often provide the best available evidence about the holdings and organization of libraries that long ago ceased to exist. While most book inventories are quite primitive by modern standards of bibliographic control, they deserve publication as valuable documentation for the history of libraries and of the diffusion of ideas. To be of highest research value, published inventories should make every effort to identify vague titles, explain cryptic references, and identify surviving manuscripts. Even conventional lists of books should be placed in historical context, leading to a creative reconstruction of particular medieval libraries over time. This involved process has no doubt led some editors to publish mere transcriptions of inventories without scholarly apparatus, and others to avoid publishing library inventories altogether. Perhaps this problem is most serious in the case of medieval Italian libraries (especially those beyond the principal cities and centers of learning) for which our knowledge is still imperfect despite an abundance of unpublished evidence. |
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| ISSN: | 2166-5508 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Traditio
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0362152900012113 |