Recent Book Thefts in the Library of the Abbey of Montecassino

The Italian Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association has published a list of books stolen from the Library of the Abbey of Montecassino. The library’s director, Dott. Francesco Rosa, has kindly given permission to inform all ILAB booksellers about this recent theft in detail.

The monastery was founded by Benedict of Nursia in 529. There he wrote the Benedictine Rule which became the founding principle for Western monasticism.

The list of stolen books comprises incunables and early printed books, many of them printed by Aldus Manutius in Venice, for example the works of Aristotle (1495) and Gaza’s “Introductionae grammatices libri quatuor” (1495), as well as Copernicus outstanding work "De reuolutionibus orbium coelestium" (1566), Aliaco’s “Concordantia astronomiae”, printed in Augsburg (Germany) in 1490, and Hartmann Schedel’s “Liber chronicarum” (Nuremberg 1493), from which woodcuts were stolen.

If you have any information about the books, please contact ALAI President Fabrizio Govi.

INCUNABLES

Aliaco, Petrus de
Concordantia astronomiae cum theologia...
Augustae vindelicorum, Herardus Ratdolt, 1490

Aristoteles
Opera
Venetiis, per Aldi Manucii, 1495

Gaza, Theodorus
Introductionae grammatices libri quator
Eiusdem de mensibus opusculum sanequam pulcrtum
Apollonii grammatici de constructione libri quator
Herodianus de numeris
Venetiis, Aldus Manutius, 1495

Lucretius Titus Carus
De Rerum Natura. Studio Hieronymi Avancii
Venetiis, apud Aldum, 1500

Regimontanus, Johannes
Astronomicon epitoma
Venetiis, M. Romanurum, 1496

Regimontanus, Johannes
Kalendarium magistri Joannis de Monteregio
Augustae Vindelicorum, E. Ratdolt, 1489

16th CENTURY

Platone
Apanta ta tou Platonos. Omnia Platonis opera
(Venetiis, in aedib. Aldi, et Andreae soceri , mense Septembri 1513)

Alberti, Leon Battista
Leonis Baptistae Alberti, viri doctissimi, de equo animante: ad Leonellum Ferrariensem principem libellus: Michaelis Martini Stellae cura ac studio inuentus, & nunc demum per eundem in lucem editus Basilea , 1556

Copernico, Niccolò
Nicolai Copernici Torinensis De reuolutionibus orbium coelestium, libri 6
Basileae, ex officina Henricpetrina, (1566 mense Septembri)

Finè Oronce
Quadratura circuli, tandem inventa et clarissime demonstarata
Lutetiae Parisiorum, apud S. Coliseum, 1544.

Finè Oronce
Aritmetica pratica, libris quator absolluta, omnibus qui mathematicas ipsas tractare volunt, perutilias, admodunque necessaria...
Parisiis, ex off. S. Colineai, 1542.

17th CENTURY

Fontana, Francesco
Novae coelestium terrestriumque rerum observationes et fotasse hactenus non vulgatae a F. Fontana Neapoli, apud Gassarum, 1646

Galilei, Galileo
Dialogo di G. Galilei dove si discorre sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo tolemaico e copernicano. Fiorenza, per Gio. Battista Landini, 1632

Galilei, Galileo
Le Operazioni del compasso geometrico, et militare. Di Galileo Galilei nobil fiorentino lettor delle matematiche nello studio di Padoua. Dedicato al sereniss. principe di Toscana d. Cosimo Medici In Padova, in casa dell'autore, per Pietro Marinelli, 1606

WOODCUTS TAKEN FROM THE FOLLOWING INCUNABLE

Schedel, Hartmann
Liber chronicarum
Nuremberg, Anton Koberger, 1493
Carte (leaves) XII - XIII

ILAB STOLEN BOOKS DATABASE

The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers (ILAB) and its national member associations has a long history of preventing book theft and of catching book thieves, both at national and international level. This also applies to stolen maps as well as documents, manuscripts and other related material. ILAB works closely with booksellers, libraries, museums, the police, national governments and other interested bodies. On www.stolen-book.org you can check if a book that you have been offered has been reported as stolen. With authorised login you can see additional layers of details. The intention is that thieves will have nowhere to dispose of their ill gotten goods.

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