Il cardinale Gioacchino Besozzi collezionista di codici, quadri, medaglie e altre antichità

Abstract

Gioacchino Besozzi (Milano 1679 - Tivoli 1755), a cistercian monk, who became Cardinal of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, was a scholar and a book collector. When he was abbot, the building of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme library, called the Sessoriana, was finished and frescoed, and a bust of pope Benedict XIV, sculpted by Carlo Marchionni, was placed in the hall. Artistic shelves, medals and paintings, including some by Pieter Paul Rubens, adorned the library. All the extant MSS acquired by Besozzi for the Sessoriana are examined: most of these are now in the Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele II in Rome, a few are scattered in other libraries. Chronology of acquisition and provenances, old indexes, bindings, shelf-mark and arrangement of Besozzi's manuscript collection are here investigated.