Centre for Studies in Classicism's library of Prato

Presentation of the library

The library of about 6000 books consists of a highly specialized section in the field of Humanism and of Renaissance, which includes, in addition to volumes of literary criticism, philology, philosophy, history and art history, as well as editions of many authors, the series “Humanistica” of the Centre for Studies in Classicism, divided into essays, critical editions and tools for research and teaching in universities; the series “Prato Umanistica”; the volumes published in the “Edizione Nazionale delle opere di Leon Battista Alberti” and in the “Edizione Nazionale delle opere di Lorenzo Valla”, which have their registered office in the Centre, and finally the publications of the “Scuola del Dottorato internazionale in Civiltà dell’Umanesimo e del Rinascimento”.

Another substantial section contains many of the publications of the publishing house Bulzoni of Rome (including the series “Biblioteca di Cultura” and “Europa delle Corti”) and of the publishing house Polistampa of Florence. A large section of Latin and Greek classics completes the library, with editions in parallel text, the series “Scelta di curiosità letterarie inedite o rare dal secolo XIII al XIX” of the Commission for texts of the language, other series published by the Centre for Studies in Classicism, the series “Biblioteca Neoclassica”, with a seires of essays and commented texts on the Italian and European neoclassical literature, the series “Città Futura”, with a series of texts on cultural policy issues and civic engagement and contemporary literature, the series “Cataloghi e Mostre”.

There are also specialized journals, such as “Italia medioevale e umanistica” and “Moderni e Antichi. Quaderni del Centro di Studi sul Classicismo”.

There are plenty of basic tools, also on CD-ROM: encyclopaedias, histories of literature, the “Dizionario Biografico” (DBI), and the “Grande dizionario della lingua italiana” by Salvatore Battaglia. The Centre for Studies in Classicism also has all mikrofilms of manuscripts “albertiani” and “valliani”, already transferred to digital media. In the Centre there is available the ”Index verborum” with all the works of Leon Battista Alberti and most of those of Lorenzo Valla.