Italian Literature & Language: Special Collections

Special Collections include:

• The Futurist collection consists of a small group of Futurist-era publications some of which are specifically by Futurist authors while others derive from the political/artistic environment of the period. Records for all items are in the online catalogue.
• The Guarini collection comprises multiple editions of the 16th-century pastoral tragi-comedy by Battista Guarini, Il pastor fido. First published in 1590, over 450 editions, reprints, translations and adaptations are known to exist. Approaching 200 of these are now in the library's collections. The core of these (33 versions) originated with the library's Finch collection, with rest in the Guarini collection. Editions include translations into Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Postuguese and Spanish, and a parody, Il pastor infido (Leipzig, 1696). Records for all Guarini editions are in the online catalogue. See also D. Thomas An annotated checklist of editions of the works of Battista Guarini (2022).
• The small but important Manuscript collection, comprising letters and papers of literary figures and others, includes items by Marinetti, Metastasio, and Ungaretti. See The letters and papers of European writers and others in the library of the Taylor Institution: summary catalogue.
• The Moore collection, comprising circa 900 volumes by and about Dante. The collection was formed by Edward Moore (1835-1916), principal of St. Edmund Hall, Taylorian Lecturer in Dante (1895-1908), and a founder of the Dante Society (1876). Publications range in date from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The collection was placed on loan to the library by The Queen's College in 1939. Records for items originating with this collection are in the online catalogue.

Futurist Collection: Futurist-era publications. (Image: Corrado Govoni Poesie elettriche (Ferrara: A. Taddei, 1920)
[Taylor Institution Library])

Futurism, Fascism & the Art of War: See the Taylorian's blog post about our Futurist-era collection

Moore Collection: Circa 900 volumes by and about Dante. The collection was formed by Edward Moore (1835-1916), principal of St. Edmund Hall, Taylorian Lecturer in Dante (1895-1908), and a founder of the Dante Society (1876).

Oxford Dante Society: Abstracts of papers read before the Oxford Dante Society, 2 vols., 1876-98; and a minute book of the Oxford Dante Society, 1876-1968.

Early Modern collections: See the Taylorian's blog post about our Ariosto holdings

The Bodleian Library also has an extensive collection of materials relating to Italian language and literature. Books published in the UK arrive there through the legal deposit agreement and are available for reference use, as are theses completed in Oxford in the field of Italian.

• Within its Special Collections the Bodleian holds a large number of antiquarian editions together with Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts of Italian literature (see Finding Aid to Papyri, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts).
   
• The Centre for the History of the Book promotes the understanding, documentation and interpretation of the intellectual and material history of the book.

Fuller guidance on useful archival resources in Italy is available in this guide.

Sir Robert Taylor (1714–1788), Architect  
By (or attributed to) William Miller  

(Taylor Institution Library, University of Oxford)  

Guarini Collection

(Image: Battista Guarini, Il pastor fido, scene from Act 1 (engraving, c. 1602; See Berthold Wiese, Erasmo Pèrcopo: Geschichte der Italienischen Litteratur, Leipzig und Wien 1910 [Wikimedia Commons])

Multiple editions of the 16th-century pastoral tragi-comedy by Battista Guarini, Il pastor fido. Records for Guarini editions held by the Taylor Institution are in the online catalogue (SOLO) as well as in a separate checklist: