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figure in the development of Trecento art, painted the frontispiece of the codex at the poet's request. Martini and Petrarch were very good friends. A work by Luca Pacioli titled De Divina Proportione discloses evidence of another story of friendship, between t h e a u t h o r P a c i o l i , Franciscan friar and mathe- matician, and Leonardo da V i n c i . D e D i v i n a Proportione is a treatise on geometric figures completed in 1497. Pacioli dedicated it to "the perspicacious and curious minds interested in philosophy, sculpting, archi- t e c t u r e , m u s i c a n d o t h e r kinds of mathematics", as he explains in the introduction. Leonardo contributed water- colors of 60 geometric solids. T h e r i c h l y i l l u m i n a t e d Libro d'Ore Borromeo stands out when compared to other Federico Borromeo's books of devotion. It was his favorite prayer book. It was also a treasured family heirloom displaying his family's coats of arms and the portraits of the two ancestors who had commis - sioned it, Count Giovanni III Borromeo (1439-95) and his wife Cle ofa Pio da Carpi. It b o a s t s t h e s i g n a t u r e o f C r i s t o f o r o d e P r e d i s , a n excellent Lombard miniatur- ist active at the Sforza Court. De Predis produced it in the years 1480-1485. C a r d i n a l F e d e r i c o Borromeo collected every- thing he could lay his hands o n . " H e b u i l t a u n i v e r s a l library for all the people who could read and write and welcomed all them in," says Monsignor Dr. Federico G a l l o , d i r e c t o r o f t h e A m b r o s i a n a L i b r a r y . H e built a library that would cir- cumnavigate the world of knowledge. "Borromeo's intent was universalistic," he says. "The Ambrosiana has never been and will never be a theologi- cal and confessional library. This is a universal library." "Borromeo also estab- lished a college of Dottori or savants, a scholarly body that oversees the institu- tion," explains Monsignor Dr. Gallo. The Ambrosiana's Doctors are philologists. They study literary texts and are capable of critically editing a manu- script. They face technical issues such as bringing out draft sections of a text when the corrected version is pre- s e n t . T h e y i n t e r p r e t t h e codices and publish essays about them. Each Dottore has his area of expertise. I n t h e t w e n t y - s e c o n d chapter of The Betrothed (I Promessi Sposi), Italy's national literary classic pub- l i s h e d i n 1 8 2 7 , h i s t o r i c a l novelist Alessandro Manzoni describes the personality of Borromeo and the birth of the Ambrosiana preceded by a febrile activity of manu- script hunting. The historical novel renowned for its vivid descriptions of the plague t h a t g u t t e d M i l a n i n t h e 1600s also offers an insight into Federico's mind. Manzoni writes that the Ambrosiana Library "will e v e r b e a m o n u m e n t o f Federico Borromeo's liberali- ty and magnificence. "To furnish it with books and manuscripts, besides those which he had already collected, he sent eight of the most skillful and learned men to make purchases of t h e m i n F r a n c e , S p a i n , Germany, Italy, Flanders, G r e e c e , L e b a n o n , a n d Jerusalem," Manzoni writes. The Ambrosiana is also a chest of hidden treasures in terms of ancient Arabic man- uscripts. Borromeo wanted all oriental languages to be represented in the Library's collections. To buy Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Syrian and Turkish manuscripts, Borromeo also s e n t e m i s s a r i e s t o J e r u s a l e m , B a g h d a d , D a m a s c u s , C a i r o , a n d Istanbul. Director Gallo says that "Borromeo had access to a widespread web of contacts through missionaries and laymen who were willing to h e l p h i m b u i l d u p t h e O r i e n t a l t r e a s u r e s o f t h e Library. Michele "the Maronite" was given the responsibility for collecting texts from the Near East and the Middle East. He paid large sums to o b t a i n m a n u s c r i p t s f r o m C a i r o . A n o t h e r t i m e h e reached Tripolis, Syria, and Qanubin. He died when he was on a mission in Aleppo in 1613. O t h e r F e d e r i c o Borromeo's orientalists were the Scot David Colville and Giacomo Filippo Buzzi. The latter was an Ambrosiana Dottore in the Arabic lan- guage. "The first Orientalist at the Ambrosiana was Antonio Giggi, who composed the first large-scale Arabic-Latin d i c t i o n a r y , p u b l i s h e d i n 1632," explains Monsignor Dr. Gallo. Some 2,150 Arabic manu- s c r i p t s a r e p a r t o f t h e Ancient Fund that includes I s l a m i c s c i e n c e s a n d Christian codices such as the Pentaglottus, "a magnificent manuscript written in five oriental languages: Arabic, Armenian, the Syriac, the Coptic, and the Ethiopian," says Director Gallo. An extremely captivating A r a b i c m a n u s c r i p t i s t h e Kitāb al-Ḥayawān known as The Book of the Animals. It is a pioneering, encyclope- d i c w o r k o n z o o l o g y t h a t anticipates aspects of the modern evolutionary theory. It also combines theological reflections, the first con- stituent elements of sociolo- g y a n d p s y c h o l o g y . T h e author is Abū ʿUthman ʿAmr ibn Baḥr al-Kinānī al-Baṣrī, an Arab scholar of African descent who lived in the 8th and 9th centuries in mod- ern-day Iraq. He was com- monly known by his nick- name Al-Jahiz, which trans- lates as 'goggle-eyed." He w a s a c o n s u l t a n t f o r t h e Caliph of Baghdad. "Our manuscript contain- ing the Al-Jahiz work dates back to the 15th century," says Monsignor Dr. Gallo. "It is a splendidly illuminated manuscript whose illustra- tions reveal animals plus del- icate scenes from a harem." Among the scientific man- u s c r i p t s i n A r a b i c i s a Miscellanea Medica by Ibn B u t l a n , a m e d i c a l d o c t o r from Baghdad who lived in the eleventh century. Islamic medical treatises with some additional practical texts, t h e s e i l l u m i n a t e d m a n u - scripts are objects of beauty and masterpieces in Islamic book arts. In 1909, the Ambrosiana acquired another rich collec- tion, the Caprotti Fund, consisting of 2,000 Yemeni manuscripts. They represent the largest collection in this field in Europe. Mr. Caprotti was a Lombard merchant based in Yemen. "The Yemen codices are marvelous," com- m e n t s G a l l o . " C a r d i n a l Achille Ratti, the future Pope Pius XI, propitiated their acquisition." In terms of printed books i n O r i e n t a l l a n g u a g e s , " C a r d i n a l B o r r o m e o h a d o p e n e d h i s o w n p r i n t i n g house to publish in Hebrew, Arabic, Chaldee, Persian, and Armenian," says Gallo. T h e f i r s t b o o k p r i n t e d from movable Arabic type is the Kitāb ṣalāt al-sawāʻi also k n o w n a s S e p t e m H o r a e Canonicae or Horologion. It is an illuminated Book of Hours, a book of prayers, printed in 1514 by Venetian t y p o g r a p h e r G r e g o r i o d e Gregorii. The text is in black ink but the rubrics and punc- tuation marks in red. Its bor- d e r d e c o r a t i o n s f e a t u r e aquatic and aerial birds. "It was commissioned and pub- l i s h e d a t t h e e x p e n s e s o f Pope Julius II and intended f o r d i s t r i b u t i o n a m o n g C h r i s t i a n s o f t h e M i d d l e East," wrote Mirolav Krek, a late scholar in Arab studies a t B r a n d e i s U n i v e r s i t y , Massachusetts. This is an extremely rare book. Only eight copies are known to e x i s t . O n e i s a t t h e Ambrosiana. I n h o n o r o f t h e 7 0 0 t h a n n i v e r s a r y o f D a n t e A l i g h i e r i ' s d e a t h , t h e Ambrosiana is holding an e x h i b i t i o n ( u n t i l m i d - September) on the Sommo Poeta's most precious works. Among those featured is a r e m a r k a b l e i l l u m i n a t e d m a n u s c r i p t o f t h e D i v i n e Comedy known as Chiose Ambrosiane. Confiscated b y N a p o l e o n d u r i n g h i s Italian campaign in 1796, it returned to Milan after the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Visitors and medievalists can also admire the Comentum Super Poema Comedie Dante, a commentary in the I t a l i a n v e r n a c u l a r o n t h e Comedy. The author is Pietro Alighieri, the eldest son of the Father of the Italian lan- guage. T h e A m b r o s i a n a h a s begun the process of digitiz- ing its library materials so that can be available to any- one through the web, while original copies can be pre- served and protected. . LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE Saint Jerome writing (Photo available under Creative Commons license. Author: daryl_mitchell. License: CC BY-SA 2.0) Continued from page 32 THURSDAY, MAY 13, 2021 www.italoamericano.org 34 L'Italo-Americano

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