Project Summary
This project is hosted by: Warburg Institute
- Research interests:
- Classics, Digital resources, History of the book, Manuscript studies, Modern History
- Regions:
- Europe, Europe
- Project period:
- 01-Oct-2022 - 30-Sep-2026
- Project categories:
- Research project
- Project summary:
The spread of classical texts in Greek into Italy, and from there to France and other nations, was decisive for the cultural and intellectual innovations of the European Renaissance. Yet the precise practices, relationships, and goals involved in acquiring and organizing these works, including the changes brought by the arrival of printing, remain significantly understuded. They can be best understood by detailed examination of specific collections and collectors. This project focuses on the library of one remarkably active and effective collector, Guillaume Pellicier (ca. 1490-1567), a French bishop and ambassador of François Ier to Venice. It will produce a detailed description of the collection (which is today held for the most part at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin), the digitisation of its contents, and a detailed study of the history of the transmission of Greek culture in sixteenth-century Venice and of private and public libraries in the Renaissance. The project will contribute significantly to our understanding of the ways in which books were produced and circulated, and of the role played by the second and third generation of Greeks settled in Italy in the transmission of the Greek cultural patrimony to modern Europe.
The investigation and analysis of this corpus will offer new views on the survival of manuscript production in the age of printing, an aspect of book production that is under-represented in academic research and underestimated in global studies of written culture.
This project will make the library accessible to researchers and the general public alike and will provide tools for the conservation, protection and promotion of the collection as a prime example of the cultural and intellectual heritage of Europe. It also aims to offer the general public a better understanding of cultural life in Venice and of the cultural policy of King François Ier, particularly in regard to Greek culture.
The project will be led by Raphaële Mouren (London; PI). Her expertise in the history of scholarship and the transmission of Greek literature in 16th c. Italy will be key to the project as will her command of the norms and formats of manuscript description and critical edition archival documentation. The Co-investigator will be Rosa Maria Piccione, a classicist and a specialist in the transmission of Greek culture and manuscript production and in sixteenth century Venice. Two postdoctoral researchers will support the project, working on the manuscript catalogue. A consultant on a short contract will help us investigate archives in France and Italy. Richard Gartner, a specialist in metadata and digital libraries, will design the structure for the dataset in XML (TEI, METS) and CIDOC-CROM. An international advisory board will provide additional expertise in the key areas of palaeography, manuscript studies, the history of libraries and digital humanities. The project is supported, both financially and in-kind, by the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.
The project will expand our knowledge of manuscript production in the age of printing and the creation of libraries in sixteenth-century France and Italy. It will make available hidden material that might support PhD theses and wider scholarship in the field; it will be of value to the work of librarians and metadata specialists; it will create a significant corpus of data and metadata in a variety of interoperable formats for reuse and sharing and will generate a range of publications in several disciplines. Its outputs will be of interest to a large range of non-academic professional audiences as well as the general public.
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Management Details
Lead researcher & project contact:
| Name | Position | Institute | Organisation | Contact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Professor Raphaële Mouren | Warburg Institute | School of Advanced Study, University of London | raphaele.mouren@sas.ac.uk |
Researchers:
| Name | Position | Institute | Organisation | Contact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dr Elisa Bianchi | Research Assistant | The Warburg Institute | School of Advanced Study | elisa.bianchi@sas.ac.uk |
| Dr Natalia Fantetti | Administrator | The Warburg Institute | School of Advanced Study | natalia.fantetti1@sas.ac.uk |
| Dr Richard Gartner | Digital Librarian | The Warburg Institute | School of Advanced Study | richard.gartner@sas.ac.uk |
| Dr Rosamaria Piccione | Professoressa associata | Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici | Universita di Torino | rosamaria.piccione@unito.it |
| Dr Dimitrios Skrekas | Research Assistant | The Warburg Institute | School of Advanced Study | dimitrios.skrekas@sas.ac.uk |
Other collaborative organisations:
| Name | URL | Contact |
|---|---|---|
| British School at Rome | https://bsr.ac.uk | info@bsr.ac.uk |
| Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz | https://staatsbibliothek-berlin.de | |
| Università di Torino | https://www.unito.it |
Funding:
| Funder | Grant type | Award |
|---|---|---|
| Arts and Humanities Research Council | Standard Research Grant | £1,019,706.00 |
Related Activities
Related events:
| Title | Details | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Bibliothèques de manuscrits au début de l’époque moderne | Alors que peu à peu la part du livre imprimé augmente dans les bibliothèques tout au long des premiers siècles de l’imprimé, continuent à exister et à se créer des collections composées principalement de manuscrits. Ces bibliothèques peuvent être héritées du passé, constituées par le hasard des choses, ou consciencieusement construites ; elles peuvent contenir des manuscrits anciens ou copiés spécialement pour elles ; elles peuvent être multilingues ou non, couvrir de nombreux domaines ou un petit nombre. Le Centre Gabriel Naudé, en collaboration avec le projet de recherche Greek manuscripts in Renaissance Venice, the library of Guillaume Pellicier and its contribution to Europe’s intellectual heritage, a proposé de confronter les réalités de ces collections au travers des recherches les plus récentes dans le domaine. Ces recherches, centrées sur les bibliothèques même se sont attachées aux acteurs, aux collectionneurs, aux réseaux ; à la fabrication et aux étapes de la constitution des collections ; aux usages, toujours différents, parfois liés à des notions d’aires géographiques ou linguistiques, à des stratégies politiques ou culturelles ; aux circulations, etc. |
01-Jan-2025 |
| Cataloguing Greek Manuscripts in the Digital Age | Supported by the AHRC 4-year funded project, Greek manuscripts in Renaissance Venice: The library of Guillaume Pellicier and its contribution to Europe’s intellectual heritage. The workshop was hosted by project partner, the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. The study of the Greek manuscripts of Guillaume Pellicier, now in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, has raised questions that are best answered through the use of innovative techniques from the digital humanities field. The objective of the workshop was to better understand the current trends in manuscript description and how they may generate new areas of research. Old methods and new approaches were discussed by specialists invited by the Pellicier project and the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. |
01-Jan-2024 |
Related websites:
| Title | Details |
|---|---|
| Greek manuscripts in Renaissance Venice | Project research blog |
Related publications/articles:
| Title | Details | Publication date |
|---|---|---|
| Elisa Bianchi | “Valeriano Albini in Venice: copyist and librarian at the monastery of Sant’Antonio di Castello”, Scrineum, 21, 1, 2024, pp. 151-204.
|
2024 |
| Elisa Bianchi, Dimitrios Skrekas | “Greek Manuscripts in Renaissance Venice: the Library of Guillaume Pellicier and its contribution to Europe’s intellectual heritage”, AMARC: Newsletter of the Association for Manuscripts and Archives in Research Collections, 83, November 2024. h |
2024 |