Gazette 67

‘Cultumetry’ is a term referring to the quantitative analysis of all phenomena related to the state and evolution of written culture over time and space. This contribution focuses solely on the ‘multiplicandum’, namely, the object in the form of a codex, simultaneously the result and virtually the protgonist of a multiplication process. Beyond the challenges of formalizing data, ‘cultumetry’ needs to define statistical indicators capable of comprehensively, effectively, and distortion-free summarizing the nature and evolution of the analysed phenomena. If manuscripts are considered by the number of extant copies, the unique properties and implications of the typographic reproduction method allow for a plurality of approaches and, consequently, potentially suitable indicators. Among these, the quantity of editions produced is the only indicator adopted by specialists so far, but this does not account for either the ‘editorial mass’ (quantity of reproduced text) or the print run and can greatly distort the measure of a printing workshop’s activity. Detecting the quantity of preserved copies, where the conservation rate is sufficiently high, partially mitigates the shortcomings of the previous indicator, and the current geolocation of these copies paves the way for understanding the commercial orientation of businesses, market composition, and phenomena of competition and specialization.

The aim of this essay is to analyze the preserved manuscript witnesses of the Pantegni, a medical encyclopedia translated from Arabic by Constantine the African, according
to a quantitative approach. Thanks to the study of the earliest codex, the contribution shows that the translator and the Cassinese scriptorium in which he worked made specific choices in associating the innovative medical doctrine of allogenic origin with manuscripts with peculiar features, and that there are both significant differences and similarities with respect to manuscripts with medical content produced before the end of the 11th century. Secondly, by considering the Pantegni manuscripts
dated between the 13th and 14th centuries, the essay examines how such innovative choices were received in these centuries and what kind of dissemination the work had in the university era.

The article aims to be a starting point for the study of the manuscript heritage that belonged to the ancient library of the Observant Franciscan convent of San Paolo in Monte, in Bologna. The convent, founded at the beginning of the 15th century, was in fact equipped with a rich library, which has never been sufficiently studied until now, and of which the two main city libraries (the University Library of Bologna and the Archiginnasio) retain numerous traces. A first partial list of the volumes hosted by the convent is preserved in ms BAV, Barb. lat. 3185: it was written at the beginning of the 16th century by an Italian humanist named Fabio Vigili and edited, in 1943, by M.H. Laurent. To fill the absence of sources regarding the consistency of this library for the following centuries, a new inventory is presented here, identified in the ms BAV, Vat. lat. 11271, and drawn up in 1600 at the request of the Sacred Congregation of the Index. The attribution of this inventory, hitherto considered anonymous, to the library of S. Paolo in Monte is confirmed not only by the mention of a Bible belonging to the friar Marco Fantuzzi of Bologna and still present in the convent in 1625, but also by the finding of numerous concordances with the Vigili’s list. Finally, an overview of the manuscripts identified to date is provided (57), attaching a table of concordances between the ancient inventories and their transcription.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, during the Saadian and early Alawite reigns, Morocco experienced a major intellectual and cultural movement with a Sufi influence. One of the manifestations of this cultural movement was the establishment of libraries in religious institutions, particularly mosques and zawiyas.
Our study focuses on three important libraries in Morocco – namely: the library of the al-Ḳarawiyyīn mosque in Fez, of the Ḥamzāwiyya zawiya in Midelt and of the Nāṣiriyya zawiya in Tamegrout, both located in southern Morocco.
We will analyze, through their foundation, the role played by the waḳf in their constitution and show their specificities and what was their function in the dissemination of knowledge, and finally the factors behind their persistence to the present day.