Biblioteca Capitolare di Ivrea

The Capitular Library of Ivrea preserves manuscripts linked to the cathedral chapter's medieval book culture. Its holdings include the Sacramentary of Bishop Warmondo, a richly decorated late-tenth-century liturgical manuscript.

Why it matters

The cathedral chapter's library preserves manuscripts associated with the scriptorium active under Bishop Warmondo around the turn of the first millennium. Among them is the Sacramentary of Bishop Warmondo, a richly decorated late-tenth-century liturgical book reproduced in facsimile. The collection connects Ivrea's medieval ecclesiastical history with the history of book production in northern Italy.

What to notice

The Sacramentary (manuscript 31) comprises 222 parchment leaves with liturgical text, miniatures and decorated initials. Its production reflects the book culture associated with Warmondo's scriptorium. The library remains part of the cathedral chapter, within Ivrea's historic ecclesiastical quarter.

Context and history

The library belongs to the cathedral chapter, the college of canons attached to the Duomo, and its holdings were formed around the same scriptorium that produced the cathedral's tenth- and eleventh-century manuscripts. Warmondo's school of scribes and illuminators made Ivrea an exceptional centre of book production for its size, and the survival of so many early codices is largely thanks to the chapter's uninterrupted custody. Over the centuries the collection grew through donations and the accrual of liturgical and canonical texts, and today the library operates as a diocesan institution under the Diocese of Ivrea, directed by a canon. The library forms part of Ivrea's medieval cathedral quarter, alongside the cathedral, capitular cloister and diocesan archive.