The rediscovered Islamic manuscripts of the Cospi Museum in the University Library of Bologna

Abstract

This article reconstructs, by means of unpublished and newly discovered archival sources, the path of the Islamic manuscripts of the Cospi Museum from their entry into the collection of Ferdinando Cospi up to the present day, and identifies them, for the first time, in a group of manuscripts currently held in the University Library of Bologna. Although Islamic manuscripts had made their way to Italy since medieval times and numerous examples may be found in Italian libraries today, very few represent the collection of a single individual and, among these, fewer still have survived as a coherent group. The rediscovered collection of Islamic manuscripts of the Cospi Museum therefore represents a rare survival which provides new insights into early modern collecting practices in Italy, as well as new material through which to explore the history of the interaction between the Islamic world and Italy in the early modern period.