Law Books and Professional Law Libraries in the Roman Inventories and Catalogues of the Early 17th Century

Abstract

The essay examines the private libraries of a group of judges active in the main criminal courts of the Papal State during the 17th century. Among them is Prospero Farinacci, one of the period’s most famous penologists. Based on new unpublished sources from Roman Archives (post-mortem and sales inventories, letters, guides), this article will examine the patrimony of a homogeneous professional group (in terms of their careers and family ties) and highlight the history of the individual or family collections, the relationships between libraries and scientific and professional activities with particular attention to the coexistence of printed books and manuscripts, social practices of display and use of the library itself, also in relation to other forms of patronage and cultural investment, the symbolic and economic value of the collections, and the relationship between libraries, individual reputations and family strategies during the accumulation and transmission phases.