Sorbonne

Heritage and university of sorbonne

The partnership between the City of Ajaccio and Sorbonne University allows the study of different fields of knowledge widely represented in the old collections of the Fesch heritage library.
As evidenced by its very encyclopedic collections, the Fesch Library was conceived as a library of studies. The books, drawn from revolutionary confiscations, cover all fields of knowledge and study the evolution of thought and science from the 15th century to the present day.
Researchers at the Sorbonne therefore have the opportunity to examine topics such as medicine, Greek-Latin literature, art history, astronomy and techniques, and highlight their findings on this dedicated page.

Press Release

Projet d’étude des collections

Initié début 2023, le partenariat entre la Ville d’Ajaccio et Sorbonne Université permet d’étudier différents champs du savoir largement représentés dans les collections anciennes de la bibliothèque patrimoniale Fesch. Comme en témoignent ses collections très encyclopédiques, la bibliothèque Fesch avait été conçue comme une bibliothèque d’études.
Les livres, tirés des confiscations révolutionnaires, couvrent tous les champs du savoir et permettent d’étudier l’évolution des pensées et des sciences du XVè siècle jusqu’à nos jours. Les chercheurs de la Sorbonne ont donc la possibilité de se pencher tour à tour sur des sujets tels que la médecine, la littérature gréco-latine, l’histoire de l’art, l’astronomie, les techniques, et mettent en lumière leurs trouvailles dans cette page qui leur est consacrée.
L’équipe de recherche de la Sorbonne est coordonnée par Madame Hélène Casanova-Robin, Professeure des Universités (littérature latine), Membre Senior de l’Institut Universitaire de France, Directrice du LABORATOIRE Rome et ses renaissances, à la Faculté des Lettres de Sorbonne Université.
Elle a réuni une équipe pluridisciplinaire :
- Véronique BOUDON-MILLOT Directrice de recherche au CNRS UMR 8167 Orient & Méditerranée Maison de la Recherche de Sorbonne Université et Adrian Faure doctorant en Histoire des Arts et littérature latine. - Emmanuelle ROSSO (Sorbonne Université), Professeur des universités, Rome et ses renaissances : Art, Archéologie, Littératures et Philosophie
Spécialités de recherche : Histoire de l’art et archéologie du monde romain
- Adrian Faure (Sorbonne Université), Doctorant en Histoire des Arts et littérature latine. - Jean-Baptiste Guillaumin (Sorbonne Université), Maître de conférences, Sciences Humaines et Humanités. Spécialité de recherche :
Littérature latine
- Laetitia Ciccolini (Sorbonne Université), Maîtresse de conférences en langue et littérature latines, Sorbonne Université. Membre de l’UMR (8584) Laboratoire d’études sur les monothéismes (Centre d’études patristiques). Thèmes de recherche : première littérature latine chrétienne (IIe-IIIe s.), histoire des doctrines philosophiques et religieuses dans l’Antiquité tardive - Nella BIANCHI BENSIMON (Université Paris Ouest-Nanterre-La Défense). Maître de Conférence HC. Disciplines enseignées : Langue et Littérature Italiennes.
Thèmes de recherche : Italie : Humanisme et Renaissance
- Mélanie Labernède, (Sorbonne Université). Doctorante en études latines à la Faculté des Lettres de Sorbonne Université

Link press releases

- Alta Frequenza
- France Info
- Bulletin des bibliothèques de France.

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Traditional knowlegejou

Study day between of Sorbonne and heritage library

Poetry

T227. Opere di TERTULLIANO tradotte in toscano — Roma, Pagliarini, 1756, in-4.Christian authors of antiquity

This book, from Cardinal Fesch's collection, contains the first Italian translation of several treatises of Tertullian, the first great Latin Christian writer, who lived in Carthage at the turn of the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Printed in Italy, where several copies are still kept, the book is extremely rare in French libraries: apart from the Fesch Library, only one copy is currently listed in the catalogs in Nîmes (Bibl. Carré d’art, Sem. 508).
The Tuscan translation is by Maria Selvaggia Borghini (1654-1731). A master of philosophy, mathematics and theology, this noble Pisan lady was also a well-known poet, inserted into the Pisan and Florentine literate milieu of the time. She began translating some of Tertullian’s works in 1717-1718, during a religious crisis. Most of his translations, accompanied by the Latin text, were published after his death, in 1756, among the Pagliarini brothers, in Rome. In the preface, Giovanni Gaetano Bottari praises the literary success of a company that represented a real challenge: making a Tuscan author known as difficult and obscure.
Three other treaties were published separately in 1841. The epitaph of her tomb in Pisa remembers her work as a translator: italica Tertulliani interpretatio magnam nominis celebritatem conciliauit (“her translation of Tertullien into Italian earned her great fame”).
Text by Laetitia Ciccolini, Lecturer in Latin Language and Literature at Sorbonne University.

Medicine

A suit worn by plague doctors reproduced in the Plague Treaty collected from the best ancient and modern writers of doctor Jean-Jacques Manget published in Geneva in 1721, shortly after the plague outbreak in Marseille, with the caption:
“Dress of Doctors and others who visit the Pestiferates, It is a leavening moroccan, the mask has crystal eyes, and a long nose full of perfumes.”
According to an engraving of the Dutch doctor Isbrand van Diemerbroek (1609-1674), who became famous for treating the pestiferous during the epidemic that struck Nijmegen (Netherlands) in 1636. The nose is beak-shaped and filled with aromas and aromas (dried flowers, herbs, spices, camphor, or vinegar sponge) to ward off airborne miasmas thought to be the main cause of the outbreak. Wooden wand was used to examine the peestiferous without touching them.
Only three copies of this 1721 edition are listed by SUDOC (Service universitaire de documentation, the online catalog of French university libraries), to which must now be added the Fesch library. The book was to have some success since it was republished the following year in Lyon (but which does not contain the famous engraving).

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“Ancient Knowledge at the Fesch Library: Literatures, Arts and Sciences”

As part of the partnership with Sorbonne University, the public reading directorate of the city of Ajaccio offers a study day “Ancient knowledge at the Fesch Library: Literatures, Arts and Sciences”.

This event was held at the Ajaccio Tourist Office on 11 June 2024. This day allowed the members of the multidisciplinary scientific team coordinated by Mrs. Hélène Casanova-Robin, Professor of Latin literature at the Faculty of Letters of Sorbonne University, Director of the Rome and its Renaissance Laboratory, senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France, to present the results of their research on the ancient collections of the Fesch Heritage Library carried out over the last two years.

Indeed, the City of Ajaccio and Sorbonne University signed a 3-year partnership agreement in February 2022, focusing on the study of the ancient Greco-Latin collections the Fesch Heritage Library and their tradition through the centuries. This research project focused on several fields of knowledge developed in ancient literature and which form the basis of modern science. Within the Library, both the social sciences and humanities and the sciences and techniques are concerned: philosophy, philology, ancient and modern Latin and Greek languages and literatures, ancient and modern astronomy and medicine.

For example, teams of researchers have regularly traveled to Ajaccio to explore the Fesch Library and select remarkable books illustrating their research in their field of competence. This study day marked half of this exploration of the Fesch seabed. The idea was to present the specificities of ancient collections of Ancient Ancients with 20-minute speaking times by researchers. And time for exchange and questions will be offered to participants. On this unique occasion, the Fesch Heritage Library team offered a live broadcast of the study day on the Youtube channel of the Fesch Heritage Library.

The purpose of this partnership is to provide a better knowledge of ancient heritage collections, to open partnerships with Corsican cultural institutions, to propose a symposium and publications on the results of the studies. This partnership and Sorbonne University’s interest in the works of the Fesch Library illustrate the exceptional nature of this fund and its necessary value to the research community around the world.

Program