Bibliotheca Iulia Instaurata
The only known witness of the Bibliotheca Iulia’s contents, the inventory documents 220 unique volumes once housed in the Stanza della Segnatura. Prepared in 1513 following the death of Julius II, its author, Romolo Mammacino (d. 1534; custodian of the Vatican Library under Julius II and Leo X), divided the list into two sections. The first records those books that were absorbed into the collections of the larger Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, whereas the second documents those consigned to Cardinal Luigi of Aragon (d. 1519).
The inventory reveals that the Julian library was generally humanistic in its character and scope. In addition to the ancient Roman canon, including texts by Cicero, Caesar, Ovid, and Pliny, it also housed Latin translations of Aristotle, Homer, Herodotus, and Thucydides. Although few vernacular authors appear on the list, the document demonstrates that Julius II owned copies of Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Leonardo Bruni. The collection also included the essential ecclesiastical and legal titles that were typical among educated members of the clergy.
Although the Julian collection was smaller than certain of its princely counterparts, it was not unsubstantial. Moreover, the inventory is undoubtedly incomplete and should be regarded as an imperfect document. For instance, the pope’s contemporaries reported that Dante was among the pope’s preferred authors, but the poet is conspicuously missing from the listed volumes. It seems equally likely that some books were loaned, stolen, gifted, or sold, or that certain others were kept elsewhere in the papal palace.
Today, roughly a third of the original collection has been identified. The recovery of these precious volumes suggests a recursive relationship between the paintings and the papal collection of texts, and that this canonical space can only be understood in consideration of the mutual transactions that took place between these visual and verbal media.
Inventory
1. Decretales
13. Marci Vegerii Car[dinalis] Senogallien[sis] Decacordu[m]
24. Vergilius
52. Ptolomei Cosmographia
56. Aristoteles de moribus ab Argyropolo traductus
102. Gregorii liber xviiii moralium
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