HISTORICAL NOTES

Founded by Mons. Carlo Rovelli at the beginning of the 19th century, the Diocesan Seminary Library of Como preserves the library collection of the previous city seminaries (Seminary of Benzi established in 1646, Seminary of Santa Caterina founded in 1740 and Seminary of San Abbondio founded in 1836).
The library assets of approximately 40,000 printed volumes are divided into two funds: the modern ones which include the texts published after 1801 and the ancient ones (created thanks to purchases of a series of library funds from monasteries and convents in the city and surrounding area at the moment of the Napoleonic suppressions) which gathers together the works prior to 1800.
This second fund includes the manuscript codexes from the Cistercian Abbey of Morimondo.
In addition to the books there are: 358 periodicals, 138 of which are current; some archival funds (Archive of the seminary, the musical collection, the Ostinelli archive fund); and a substantial botanical collection.
The library has seen its assets grow over the years thanks to purchases needed for the training of priests and donations (in the past five years the seminary has received the Casnati, San Filippo, Sorgi, Festorazzi, Roveda, Rocchi, Riva and Cavadini Funds).
In 1988, with the move to the new seminary headquarters in Muggiò, a general initiative was carried out to reorder, catalogue and update the archive.
In 2003 the Diocesan Seminary Library was qualified as a Diocesan Library. As such, it is a central point of reference for local ecclesiastical libraries within the scope of the territorial jurisdiction of the diocese based on the orders issued by the Italian Episcopal Conference.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

- Le biblioteche d'Italia fuori di Roma. Storia, classificazione, funzionamento, contenuto, cataloghi, bibliografia a cura di E. Apolloni e G. Arcamone. Tomo I: Italia settentrionale. Parte prima: Piemonte-Lombardia, Roma, Biblioteca d'arte, 1934, p. 127.
- Annuario delle biblioteche italiane. Parte I (A-F), Roma, Palombi, 1969, p. 344.
- R. DELLA BELLA, Il seminario della diocesi di Como e la sua biblioteca, tesi di laurea, Università cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano, a.a. 1969-1970, rel. G. Billanovich.
- M. VACCANI, Note sulla biblioteca del seminario teologico di Como, «Studi di storia lombarda. Quaderni milanesi», 1989, n. 19-20, pp. 143-147.
- A. MARTINUCCI, Guida alla bibliografia internazionale, Milano, Bibliografica, 1994, pp. 173-174.
- I fondi speciali delle biblioteche lombarde. Volume secondo: province di Bergamo, Brescia, Como, Cremona, Lecco, Lodi, Mantova, Pavia, Sondrio, Varese. Censimento descrittivo a cura dell'Istituto per la storia della Resistenza e dell'età contemporanea (Fonti e strumenti, 28), Milano, Bibliografica, 1998, pp. 347-348.
- Schema-tipo di regolamento delle biblioteche ecclesiastiche italiane approvato dal Consiglio episcopale Permanente della CEI nella sessione del 16-19 settembre 2002 in «ABEI», Nuova serie, XI (2002), n. 2, pp. 10-19.