Manuscript catalogue of an extensive science library in Bologna

[Manuscript] / [Library catalogue] / [Science]. 1mo Catalogo dei libri di G. F. R. Bologna: July 1876 to November 1882. 4to manuscript in ink [23.8 x 16.0 cm], 324 pp., with extra sheet of additional “R” titles loosely inserted at p. 203. Quarter bound in contemporary brown sheep and mottled brown paper over cartonato, “Catalogo dei Libri di F. R” gold stamped on spine. Only minor edge wear to binding. Ruled in pencil, neatly written and legible throughout, pencil annotations throughout. Well preserved.
 
 
Manuscript catalogue of a library in Bologna belonging to a certain “G. F. R.,” who seems to have been a scientist of some capability. Begun in July 1876 (note on title page) and with a final annotation dated 13 November 1882 (p. 248), the catalogue provides an alphabetical list of the library’s more than 3000 volumes. Each title is followed by a number between 1 and 57, no doubt a shelf mark referring to the case where each book was kept. The bulk of the catalogue was written out in 1876, but hundreds of additional volumes were added as they were acquired. Later pencil annotations tally the volumes in the collection and provide a price for each title, presumably in preparation for a sale.
 
Although “G. F. R.” acquired a diverse library—classics, novels, plays, local history of Reggio Emilia, etc., with books from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries—it is an especially notable collection for its extensive holdings in historical and contemporary physics, paleontology, biology, astronomy, mechanics, technology, and mathematics, with copious academic titles (mostly in Italian) published in the second half of the 19th century. It perhaps should be surmised that “G. F. R.” was a professor in the hard sciences in Bologna, although my (cursory) search for a candidate has been unsuccessful.
 
“G. F. R.” added to the end of the alphabetical catalogue a series of subject indices under the headings “Fisica, Scienze Naturali, Chimica,” “Libri di Agricultura,” “Libri di Analisi Matematica,” “Geometria,” and “Matematica applicata.”
 
A note at p. 104 states that Galileo’s 3-volume Opere (Florence, 1718) was given to a certain “Prof. Gino Rossi” (a relative?) in January of 1908, suggesting that the library was still intact at that date. It is possible, then, that the library continued to grow beyond 1882 and that further acquisitions were recorded in another blank book, now lost. Annotations elsewhere occasionally touch on matters of binding, the reshelving of books in new locations, etc.