Catalogo degli incunaboli della Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze

摘要

When on 4 November 1966 the flooding of the River Arno hit the National Library of Florence with such devastating force, it was estimated that some 300,000 books and newspapers had been either destroyed or gravely damaged. But as a special number of The Book Collector for Spring 1967 pointed out, 'the manuscripts, incunabula, rare books and reference works on the open shelves being kept on the upper floors were fortunately spared'. It was estimated at that time that the number of incunabula in the National Library was some 3,800, that is, copies, not editions. Since then the bibliographical world has awaited impatiently the appearance of a full catalogue, and it seemed that this would have to be in at least two volumes, if not three. In the long interval between 1966 and 2017 such a publication has been in preparation, but has suffered prolonged delays, largely for economic reasons. Luckily however a young Piero Scapecchi was appointed to the National Library staff after having worked for a few years at the smaller library of Florence, the Marucelliana. He soon proved his worth as an incunabulist, having published many articles on early printing (especially on Aldus Manutius), and later became better known for his catalogues of the incunables of the Marucelliana (1989), of the communal library at Poppi and the Monastery of Camaldoli (2004), of the Seminario Vescovile of Padua (with Lilian Armstrong and Federica Toniolo, 2008), of the communal library of Cortona (2016), as well as the Savonarola collection at the National Library (1998).