Biographical overview
1797: Jacopo Nani (over 1,000 manuscripts, mostly Greek and Oriental)
The Nani family of San Trovaso possessed the most important collection of antiquities in the second half of the eighteenth century.
It was chiefly the brothers Bernardo (1712–1761) and Giacomo (1725–1797) who devoted themselves to collecting marbles, statues, and manuscripts.
Bernardo benefited from a bequest from his cousin Giacomo da Riva, while Giacomo—originally destined by his father for a naval career—travelled extensively, residing in Dalmatia, Istria, the Peloponnese, and the Levant, where he also conducted archaeological excavations. During these travels he was able to acquire a significant collection of Kufic manuscripts from Antonio Cocchi.
Casa Nani was regularly open to scholars wishing to consult books and inscriptions; to facilitate this, the library was equipped with printed catalogues of Greek, Italian, Latin, Oriental, and Hebrew manuscripts.
The donation
Upon the death of Giacomo Nani in 1797, the collection of Kufic manuscripts and coins was, according to the provisions of his will, to pass to the Marciana Library. However, owing to the opposition of his widow, Moceniga Vendramin, the transfer did not take place until 1800, with the sole exception of the Hebrew manuscripts.
Extent and composition
The bequest comprised: 2 French manuscripts (described in the catalogue of vernacular manuscripts), 309 Greek manuscripts, 127 Latin manuscripts, 164 Italian manuscripts, and 116 manuscripts identified as Oriental.
This last group consisted of Arabic, Egyptian, Persian, Syriac, and Turkish manuscripts, according to the language-based manuscript catalogue compiled by Giovanni Veludo in 1877.
The manuscripts include travel accounts, chronicles, historical and literary works, political and scientific treatises, texts on military art, architecture, philosophy, and religion, as well as sacred texts and numerous Greek Gospel books, some dating from before the year 1000.
Particularly noteworthy are the following manuscripts: De machinis bellicis by Mariano Taccola, Lat. VIII, 40 (=2941), fifteenth century; Ahmedi Alexandri Magni Historia carminibus persicis, Or. 90 (=57), sixteenth century; a sixteenth-century copy of the Qur’an (Or. 68 = 65), still preserved in its original contemporary Oriental binding; Physiologus by Manuel Philes, transcribed by Angelo Vergezio, Gr. IV, 35 (=1383), sixteenth century.
In particolare si segnalano i codici: De machinis bellicis di Mariano Taccola, Lat. VIII, 40 (=2941) del secolo XV, Ahmedi Alexandri Magni Historia carminibus persicis, Or. 90 (=57) del secolo sedicesimo, un esemplare cinquecentesco del Corano (Or. 68 = 65), ancora contenuto nella preziosa coperta orientale coeva, il Physiologus di Manuel Philes trascritto da Angelo Vergezio, Gr. IV, 35 (=1383) del secolo XVI.
Inventories and catalogues
The following printed catalogues—research tools already present in the Nani family library—document the collection:
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Jacopo Morelli, Codices manuscripti latini Bibliothecae Nanianae a Jacopo Morellio relati. Opuscula inedita accedunt ex iisdem deprompta, Venetiis, typis Ant. Zattae, 1776 (Marciana copy: Cons. Cat. Mss. Marc. 7A).
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Jacopo Morelli, I codici manoscritti volgari della Libreria Naniana. S’aggiungono alcune operette inedite da essi tratte, Venice, Antonio Zatta, 1776 (Marciana copy: Cons. Cat. Mss. Marc. 7A, bound with the previous item).
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Giovanni Luigi Mingarelli, Graeci codices manuscripti apud Nanios patricios venetos asservati, Bologna, Lelio Dalla Volpe, 1784 (Marciana copy: 232.D.95 and three other copies).
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Giovanni Luigi Mingarelli, Aegyptiorum codicum reliquiae Venetiis in Bibliotheca Naniana asservatae, Bologna, Lelio Dalla Volpe, 1785 (Marciana copy: Cat. Mss. Marc. 9).
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Simone Assemani, Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts in the Naniana Library, Padua, Stamperia del Seminario, 1787–1792 (e.g. Marciana copy: Cat. Mss. Marc. 8).
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The manuscript catalogue of Hebrew manuscripts: Giovanni Battista Gallicciolli, Catalogus codicum hebraicorum bibliothecae Nanianae (Marciana cod. Lat. XIV, 163 = 4567).
Further reading
- Marino Zorzi, La Libreria di San Marco, Milan, Mondadori, 1987, pp. 309–311.
- Venetiae quasi alterum Bysantium. Collezioni veneziane di codici greci dalle Raccolte della Biblioteca Marciana, edited by Marino Zorzi, exhibition catalogue (16 September – 15 October 1993), Venice, Il Cardo, 1993, pp. 97–108.
