Celestino Schiaparelli: Librarian

· The Schiaparelli Library was donated by Celestino Schiaparelli’s wife Maria to the Oriental School in 1920. It is an academic’s library, but also and above all a librarian’s library: Schiaparelli worked in fact aslibrarian at the Accademia dei Lincei for 27 years, and also obtained ministerial appointments and positions relating to libraries as an Arabist. Many of the obsessions characteristic of the profession are recognisable in his library, and rigorous attention is paid to sources that can help identify editions, especially those in Arabic. Commentsfrom authoritative scholars and reviews are also noted, especially for works in European languages. In fact, on Arabic volumes we often find the reference to the two volumes of Carl Brockelmann’s Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur, with volume and page number, as well as indications of the date of birth and death of the authors. All these elements were noted, as well as the numbers and letters found on each volume, in order to verify whether an internal classifcation of the library as conceived by Schiaparelli himself is tenable. Our contribution, then, can be considered an attempt to show Schiaparelli’s ambition to build up his library as a collection which – following the Gessnerian aspiration towards a collection of all thebooks indispensable to an Arabist – brings indications and cross-references from one work to theother to its volumes, similar to actual catalogue cross-references. It is a library that speaks first and foremost to the librarian, and tells us about the librarian as well as the Arabist.