An Unknown Archival Source about the Libraries of the Colleges of the Society of Jesus in the Val di Noto

Abstract

The essay presents the first results of the study of some of the archival sources preserved in the Historical Archive of the University of Catania. These sources provide information on the transfer of the libraries from the Colleges of Val Noto to the University Library of Catania. By a royal decree (October 31st 1767), a few months after the Spanish regulations, the Jesuits were expelled from the Reigns of Naples and Sicily and all their assets were confiscated. In the Historical Archive of the University of Catania, the manuscript Casagrandi no. 70 collects the delivery receipts of the collections destined to the University Library. The analysis of the contents and of the bibliographic aspects of the lists of books provides valuable information to rebuild the history of the collections that belonged to the Society in the years following the suppression and in the specific geographic context of the Val Noto.

Keywords

• jesuits
• jesuit libraries
• university archive, catania
• library inventories
• jesuit colleges of sicily