From Salamanca to Florence: the collection of books and manuscripts of Girolamo da Sommaia (early 17th century)

Abstract

With this essay, I intend to reflect on the formation of a patrimony of literary, theatrical, historical, political, and topical writings that traversed from Salamanca to Florence and that, in the course of its journey, changed and acquired a physiognomy that took shape in successive stages. The creator, Girolamo da Sommaia, took care of the collection of these writings throughout his entire life. Coming from a family with an excellent economic standing and linked through his mother Margherita to the Guicciardini family of Florence, descendants of the historian and politician Francesco, Girolamo obtained a licence to study outside the Medici Grand Duchy in his early years. Wishing perhaps to broaden the horizons of his education and his travel and life experiences, he received permission to follow law courses at the University of Salamanca, the most influential in the Spanish monarchy. During the eight years he spent in Salamanca (from 1599 to 1607), Sommaia amassed a significant collection of printed books, manuscripts, and loose sheets. These covered a broad thematic and typological spectrum, ranging from history to theatre, poetry to prose, and reports to gazettes. In his move from Castile to Tuscany, he transported a large number of writings, both printed and manuscript, loose sheets, and bound manuscripts, which, after finding their way into the ancient collections of the Florentine libraries, today represent one of the most important core collections of Spanish volumes, manuscripts, and documents preserved Florence. In this essay, I will focus on the selection and collection of these materials, the forms of reproduction of the writings through copies, the creation of miscellaneous collections, the sorting procedures, and the phase of selecting the texts to be brought to Florence. Within the briefly traced biographical profile of Sommaia, two phases are to be considered: the first covers part of the years Girolamo spent in Salamanca, during which he collected large quantities of books and manuscripts; the second, much shorter, corresponds to his move to Tuscany and the choices related to the selection of the papers and books to be taken with him