Biblioteca dell'Abbazia di Grottaferrata

The library of the Abbey of Santa Maria di Grottaferrata preserves medieval Greek manuscripts, palimpsests, Byzantine musical codices, incunabula and roughly fifty thousand printed volumes. Its collection is rooted in the monastery founded in 1004 and includes a book-restoration laboratory established in the twentieth century.

Why it matters

The state library continues a collection associated with the abbey's liturgical and scholarly life. Its holdings include medieval Greek manuscripts in the Italo-Greek tradition, with palimpsests whose undertexts reach back to the seventh century, manuscripts in Latin, Italian and Oriental languages, and printed books from incunabula to sixteenth-century editions. A book-restoration laboratory was established here in 1931.

What to notice

The monumental library hall dates to the eighteenth century. An inscription in Greek above the study room describes the library as a repository of wisdom. The manuscript collection includes palimpsests, in which earlier texts were scraped away and parchment reused, and musical codices dating from the ninth to eighteenth centuries that preserve Byzantine chant. Printed books acquired by the monks from the early seventeenth century onward form another part of the holdings. The restoration laboratory has worked on volumes including leaves of Leonardo's Codex Atlanticus and books damaged in Florence's 1966 flood.

Context and history

The library's origins are associated with the monastery founded in 1004. Printed books are documented in the abbey from 1608, and the monumental hall was constructed in the eighteenth century. Following Italy's 1873 suppression law, a ministerial decree of 28 February 1874 declared the abbey a national monument and left the monastic community as custodian of the books under state oversight. Antonio Rocchi completed early catalogues of manuscripts and printed books in 1883. In the 1930s, Father Nilo Borgia added collections from suppressed religious houses, including Greek manuscripts from Calabria, and founded the restoration laboratory in 1931. A new hall followed in 1955; after 1975, the state library specialised in the Greek-Byzantine tradition and the history of the Eastern Churches.