http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/1909518844

Catalogue of the Arabic manuscripts in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana

The current Arabic collection of the Ambrosiana includes, as it is known, three main Funds: the Ancient Fund holding 224 Arabic and Christian manuscripts, many of them acquired during the years of Cardinal Federico Borromeo - Archbishop of Milan since 1595 - and some being very old and illuminated in splendid fashion; the Medio Fund, that holds 134 manuscripts obtained mainly during the XX century; the New Fund, made up of more than 1600 Yemenite codes owned by collector Giuseppe Caprotti, and acquired by the Ambrosiana. The meticulous analysis of the described material has allowed us to signal that also in this part of the collection - that consists of 484 codices, that is less than one fourth of the entire Found - the presence of unique, or rare texts (that is, texts about which not more than two other copies are extant) is sizeable. In fact, it is no exaggeration to recognize a double privilege to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana: not only does it own the most conspicuous Arab manuscripts fund of all of the Italian libraries, but it holds a patrimony of Yemenite manuscripts that has no equal across libraries in the western world.

Open All Close All