Collecting Mathematics in Baroque Rome. The Library-Museum of Gasparo Berti

The substantial collection of around 800 books from Gasparo Berti’s (1601–1643) private library is unique in the history of science. For Gasparo, an «invisible technician» and the son of a shopkeeper, the library was both a status symbol created for visitors inside a museum of curiosities and a tool for his many professions (cartographer, land surveyor, compiler of ephemeris, and instrument maker). For historians, it is living evidence of the cross-pollination between manual and intellectual labour, theory and practice, and craftsmanship and scholarship that gave birth to “modern” science. Berti’s library is a «trading zone» between mechanical and humanistic knowledge. This contribution will focus on this wealth of paper’ described in Berti’s post-mortem inventory (1643). It pays particular attention to its professional features, scientific context (Berti was well connected to Galileo and the Accademia dei Lincei), social exploitation, and destiny. Berti’s life and heritage are also female story that deserves to be told.