AUTORBIS.net created 2003 - 2005       

D'Este-Library


(inventory from 1436 and later notes)

Composed from: Dukes and Poets of Ferarra by Edmund G. Gardner, Library P.42, inventory of 1436.
and from: Ferarra: The Style of a Renaissance Depotism by Werner L. Gundersheimer, 1973, Princeton New Jersey. Chapter IV Leonello and Ferrarese Culture
and from: Adriano Capelli: La Biblioteca Estense nella prima meta del secolo XV, pages 12-30, (Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana, vol. 14), Turin, 1886

by Mari Hoshizaki

1. The Library included:

The Greek MSS disappeared but perhaps was a Strabo, as in May, 1470, Scipio Fortuna, one of the librarians, wrote to Borso that he never had a Greek manuscript, but perhaps another librarian, Marco di Galaotto might have it (document published by Bertoni, op. cit p. 259, La Biblioteca Estense e la Coltura Ferrararese ai tempi del Duca Ercole I. Turin, 1903).
Additional Note (autorbis): A Strabo was given by Guarino to Jacopo Antonio Marcello, who brought it to René d'Anjou. There exist two pictures of the occurrence (strange, that nobody reminded the case).

2. Additional under Leonello:
In 1428 Nicholas of Trier discovered a codex of Plautus containing sixteen comedies in a German convent. The codex was bought by cardinal Giordano Orsini and he refused to allow Poggio Bracciolini or Guarino Veronese to borrow it.* Guarino appealed to Leonello when he was installed as Leonello's tutor and Leonello wrote the request promptly. The Cardinal fulfilled the loan request and Leonello wrote of the triumph to Guarino, who was temporarily absent from the city.**

3. The segueway notes: An affectionate exchange was established between Guarino and Leonello after this manuscript was obtained. Letters cited, show Guarino respectfully and admiringly calling Leonello "King and Lord" and "Flower of Princes" in thanks for Leonello's friendly exchanges.* When Leonello was sometimes away in his country villa, engaged in hunting, he would send every day to Guarino presents of game and also elegant and spirited Latin letters describing the sport. **

*Letter from Guarino to Giordano Orsini in Pez and H ueber Thesaurus Ancedotorum Novissimus, To., v., pars iii, p. 165, Volume 6, Augsburg, 1723.< br>
**Thirteen letters from Guarino to Leonello (including the one quoted on the Plautine comedies) in Pez and Heber, op. cit. pp. 154-164. Cf. Rosmini, op. cit. i, pp. 62-69, and Voigt, i. pp. 561, 562.

4. Dedications: G. Bertoni, who wrote of the circle around Leonello D'Este, also lists an inventory of works dedicated to Leonello in La Biblioteca Estense al Tempo di Ercole d'Este, 1471-1505, (Turin, 1903), 25, n.1.  The authors, but not subjects are listed and would have been in Leonello's library by his death in 1450: 5. Borso's additions included:

Italian versions of Merlin and Lancelot illuminated by 1460. A record indicates Duke Borso sending a library request for a Lancelot in French to correct the Italian one+

+CF Bertoni, op. cit., cap. iv.
Venturi , op. cit, pp. 692, 693, L'Arte Ferrarese nel periodo di Borso d'Este. (Rivista Storica, Italina, II. 4). Turin, 1885
Pio Rajna, Le Fonti dell' Orlando Furioso, Introduction, Second Edition, Florence, 1900.

Note: Duke Borso did not know Latin so humanists who sought his patronage had to write in the Tuscan vernacular of Ferarra. These included Polismagna, translating Pier Candido Decembrio 's Laudi della citta di Milano in the vernacular.

6. Other members of the court , particularly such cultivated men of letters as Tito Vespasiano Strozzi and Ludovico Casella, tried to build personal libraries.  Men in specialized fields, such as law or medicine, often collected in their specialties (Thus Giocomo Giglioli had an important legal library, the contents which are listed in A. Capelli's article, "La Bibloteca Estense, 10-11; Aurispa's book collection was also well known, and so was Guarino's The latter left his library to his son Baptista, but in the 16th century it was dispersed). 

(contributed by Mari Hoshizaki)