Andrea Caronti (1798-1882) and his catalogue of incunabula

Abstract

The article focuses on the figure of Andrea Caronti, librarian at the Bologna University Library (BUB) from 1830 until the year of his death, 1882, and in particular on his catalogue of incunabula. The aim of the article is to reconstruct the librarian’s life and to highlight the modernity and quality of his work, so as to rescue this fascinating Bolognese character from anonymity.

Although Caronti produced a substantial number of catalographic tools of paramount importance for librarianship (one above all, the catalogue by authors), his figure is completely unknown outside the BUB. The article, therefore, illustrates Caronti’s life and career, adding references to all the main sources consulted for the research, in particular an anomalous letter-copier that the librarian used for both note-taking and bookkeeping.

The article offers a brief description of the general catalogue by authors, and then it focuses on the manuscript catalogue of incunabula compiled by Caronti and edited, in preparation for printing, by Lodovico Frati and Alberto Bacchi della Lega. Next, the sources Caronti possibly used to compile his catalogue are listed, and eventually the article describes the manuscript cards and the changes implemented by the curators during the revision for printing, with a comparison between Caronti’s original project and the final version of the catalogue.