De Bibliothecis Syntagma by Justus Lipsius: innovations and confirmations for the history of libraries

Abstract

The De Bibliothecis Syntagma Justus Lipsius (1602) was the starting point of the libraries' modern history, influencing Federico Borromeo for the foundation of the Ambrosian Library and inspiring Gabriel Naudè for his Advis pour dresser une bibliotheque. A close comparison between the chapters devoted to the libraries of ancient Rome and the writings of Encyclopedists, Antiquarians and Italian and German Scholars - who discussed the same topic - shows which were the methodological and conceptual innovations introduced by Lipsius in the history of libraries, that is critical analysis and philological sources, accompanied by their rational organization. Using a very well known and familiar genre, just like the antiquarian treatise is, Lipsius showed in Syntagma a profoundly innovative idea of Library, represented by the Museum of Alexandria and its characteristics of universality and freedom of thought and expression.