Kidnapped Books in Paris

The examination of a manuscript preserved in the archives of the Vatican Library ( BAV Arch. Bibl. 53, pt. A, ff. 2–4), which contains a list of unreturned books, together with the printed catalogue of manuscripts and books confiscated by the French during the Napoleonic occupation ( Recensio manuscriptorum codicum [Leipzig: impensis Paul Gotthelf Kummeri, 1803]), makes it possible to identify the Vatican printed volumes still held in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Most of these are valuable incunabula and editiones principes , and there are even items that have not previously been identified as part of the Napoleonic looting

History of the book · Holy See · Library history · National library · French Literature and Poetry · Historical and Literary Studies · Renaissance and Early Modern Studies