New Library Project

There is a project currently underway to establish a new library and archive at the Camaldoli Monastery, which will be named for the Camaldolese Edoardo Baroncini, archivist and librarian from the early 18th Century. The new library will make possible public access to the modernized library, and its collection of approximately 35,000 volumes.

The library also features a periodicals collection of 540 titles from Italy and abroad, which cover topics such as Holy Scripture, Theology, Patristics, Liturgy, Monasticism, Church History, and Ecumenism.

The Historic Archives contain approximately 515 boxes of papers dating from the 14th to 20th Centuries, including autograph manuscripts of Antonio Rosmini; the founding documents of the Second Vatican Council, conserved by the Camaldolese Cipriano Vagaggini; and Florentine cadastral surveys. There are 1,762 registers, including paper records dating back to 1260. The collection includes Flaminio Corner’s work on Venetian churches; galley proofs of the printer Paulus Manutius; and letters of the Manzoni family. There are also 2,051 parchments, dating from the years 1022-1939.

Also included in the collection are examples of copper printing plates, with the highlights being those engraved with the famed medieval map of Camaldolese Fra Mauro; and maps of voyages to China of the Polo and Zani brothers.
Print collections are available for public access in the reading room by making prior arrangement via email with the Library Director (biblioteca@camaldoli.it). Archival materials and rare materials, as well as manuscripts from the Ambrogio Traversari Library of the Sacred Hermitage of Camaldoli, may also be accessed by prior arrangement with the director