Manuscripts

There are no inventories of the manuscripts of Paul Petau; on the other hand, many were written between the late 1640s and 1656, when the library was increased by Petau’s son, Alexander, and was about to be sold to Queen Christina of Sweden. One of the inventories was published in 1739 by Bernard de Montfaucon in his Bibliotheca bibliothecarum. All these inventories list the manuscripts alphabetically, with no distinction between volumes acquired by Paul or Alexander. Yet, it is possible to recognize the manuscripts originally belonging to Paul Petau because he used to write the shelfmark on them, and/or to sign his name or to put his Greek motto, the same which can be found on the frontispiece of his catalog of antiquities, the Portiuncula. Manuscripts acquired by Alexander don’t have any shelfmark, but usually bear his name and the year of the purchase. Paul Petau’s shelfmarks allow not only to recognize the manuscripts once belonging to him, but also to put them in the same order as they were on the shelves. This way, it is possible to understand how his library was arranged and to compare it with other manuscript collections of his time.
Further, it will be possible to access the collection by Petau’s shelfmark, by modern library, by author or title of the work.