Catalogo dei codici medievali del Fondo Antico presso il Sacro Convento di Assisi

The Ancient Fund of the Municipal Library of Assisi, housed at the Sacred Convent of St. Francis, boasts 709 manuscripts dated or datable between the 9th and 15th centuries. A substantial portion of these manuscripts constitutes what remains of the most extensive conventual library in Italy, indeed the best-known example of the 'Franciscan library' type. These manuscripts were appropriated from the libraries of suppressed religious orders in Assisi after the unification of Italy. In the late 19th century, during the cultural fervor following the initial period of Italian unity, Giuseppe Mazzatinti provided a brief description of them in the series "Biblioteche d'Italia." It wasn't until 1981, nearly a century later, that Father Cesare Cenci OFM, a true champion of 20th-century ecclesiastical erudition, published an inventory of the medieval library of Friar Giovanni di Iolo (1381). He succinctly described about half of the manuscripts from the Ancient Fund, which he could identify as part of the codices listed in the medieval inventory (Cenci 1981). After that, silence prevailed. The purpose of the present project is to bridge this gap and provide the entire Ancient Fund with a description meeting the requirements of the prevailing scientific cataloging standards for medieval manuscripts. This aims to integrate its materials more coherently, stably, and consciously within the thriving international scholarly debate. An updated, rigorous, and monitored cataloging, both in methods and purposes, can only be conceived in the form of a comprehensive research project. Its objective extends beyond the analytical understanding of individual manuscripts to encompass the context of their usage, shedding light on the trajectory that led them to preservation and ultimately to our possession. Such a systematic approach not only seeks to enhance the analytical knowledge of each manuscript but also aims to understand the broader context of their preservation, allowing for a more comprehensive and nuanced exploration of the materials, texts, and information embedded in these valuable manuscripts. This, in turn, unveils and appropriately valorizes aspects that have remained latent due to the hitherto insufficient and imperfect knowledge surrounding the majority of these manuscripts.