La bibliofilia del Balzo e l’aspetto sacro del collezionismo

Abstract

This contribution originates from Angilberto del Balzo’s inventories, count of Ugento and duke of Nardò and from the research carried out by the département des Manuscrits and the Réserve des Livres Rares section of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. Thanks to the studies conducted on the "lo conte de Ducente"’s inventory lists (Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 8741 D) and the ones on countess Antonia del Balzo’s (Guastalla, Biblioteca Civica Maldotti, Fondo Davolio Marani, b. 23), a devotional bibliophile sensitivity is revealed, which, in reality, permeates all the members of del Balzo’s court. The work aims to unveil the historical-artistic and codicological reconstruction of the artifacts, including the unpublished codes. The study expanded the cultural panorama of the Terra d’Otranto and gives back a corpus of books, to the theological section of del Balzo’s collection, which have been considered lost up to now.

Keywords

• del balzo
• manuscripts
• incunabola
• terra d'otranto
• theology