The Italian manuscripts of the National Library of France: preliminary considerations

Abstract

In the absence, to date, of a study aimed at a critical analysis of the sources relating to banditry preserved at the Biblioth que nationale de France (BNF), this study proposes preliminary considerations in this regard, aimed at the revaluation of a documentary heritage fundamental for historiographical studies. The analysis is aimed specifically at advancing hypotheses regarding the transmission of four manuscript volumes entitled Répression du brigandage dans les Deux-Siciles au XIXe siècle, written during the socalled French Decade (1806-1815) of the Kingdom of Naples, and how they were purchased by the BNF in the 1860s. The study is the result of ongoing research conducted at the BNF Department of manuscripts. The essay offers a historiographical excursus aimed at framing the need for a return to these sources in the context of the studies conducted so far. Furthermore, it intends to explain the presence of the singular collection in the Italian fund of the Library, attempting to reconstruct the events of the archive and highlighting the new results of the survey. The collection remained in private hands for a long time, at least from 1814-1815 to 1863, before moving on to the archives of the Library, where almost immediately it found its place in the newly born Italian fund. It was acquired by the BNF by a not better defined «mademoiselle Année», a personality hitherto unknown, and on which this essay tries to shed clarity.