부산대학교 도서관

The present essay sets out to reconstruct the biography of the Florentine man of letters, Giuseppe Gonnelli (1787? - 1847), and the history of his collection of autographs. Gonnelli published some poetry, a book on art, as well as biographical works; above all, he organized an important collection of letters and documents written and signed by authors distinguished in various branches of knowledge from the XVth century through the first half of the XIXth century. This collection, composed of around 17,000 items, is the property of the BNCF. This article follows the path taken by the Gonnelli Collection from its original home to its present-day location in the BNCF. In 1852, Gonelli's heirs sold the autographs to the Biblioteca Palatina of the Pitti Palace. In 1861, when the two important Florentine libraries - the Palatina and the Magliabechiana - were united in order to create the BNCF, the Gonnelli Collection came to be included among this institution's prestigious patrimony of books, situated from the last years of the XIXth century in the Palazzo dei Giudici in via dei Castellani, and then from 1935 in its present building in piazza dei Cavalleggeri. Moreover, this article identifies the cataloging instruments, with which the collection is provided: four handwritten volumes containing the alphabetical list of a substantial portion of the autographs which compose the collection, and a nucleus of catalogue cards listed in a single volume, both made in Gonnelli's home as the present study demonstrates; a partial alphabetical catalogue made up of original cards as well as those compiled by the Biblioteca Palatina; the Inventario palatino written in 1862 that summarily describes the Gonnelli Collection along with the other collections of Palatine manuscripts; and finally, account is taken of the detailed inventory of the autographs, which has recently been made. The inventory, in two volumes compiled by hand, permits complete exploration of the collection, in addition to representing its actual contents. Aside from the four volumes of lists that are kept in the Archivio di Stato di Firenze, the other cataloging instruments that concern the Gonnelli Collection can be consulted at the BNCF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]