The European Jesuit Libraries Provenance Project

The European Jesuit Libraries Provenance Project:  Jesuit Books and Libraries in Europe, 15402-1770s purpose is to find patterns and trends in Jesuit book ownership from the founding in the 16th century until the suppression in the 18th century. We will pay special attention to markings and annotations that can show us how often the books were used. With this project we hope to answer questions about teaching as a Jesuit. What were they suppose to teach versus what books did they actually use? What was teaching like for Jesuits? What made these books ‘Jesuit’? How did usage correlate with education?

Resources Available

  • Combined Inventory of European Libraries:  Ongoing spreadsheet inventory of books found in libraries in Siena, Florence, Bologna, Livorno, Bagnacavallo, Antwerp, and Leuven
  • Inventory of Physical Books: Ongoing spreadsheet inventory of physical copies of books found in these archival inventories and their provenance information.
  • Flickr Site:  Galleries and collections of photographs taken of books