Biblioteca Casanatense

The Biblioteca Casanatense (Casanata Library) is a library in Rome, Italy. The library is located at Via di Sant'Ignazio, 52.

The library was established in 1701 by the Dominicans of the Convent of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. This convent was at that time the home of the College of St. Thomas, which in the 20th century would be relocated at the convent attached to the Church of Saints Dominic and Sixtus and grow into the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum. It was opened to the general public, according to the will of Cardinal Girolamo Casanata (1620–1700). The library contained about 25 000 volumes. Since 1872 the library has been managed by the Italian government. In the present day the library is under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture.

His chief service to learning, especially the theological sciences, was the Casanatense Library (Biblioteca Casanatense) founded and endowed by him. While living he had collected a library of about 25,000 volumes; this he left to the above-mentioned Dominican convent of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, together with an endowment fund of 80,000 scudi (almost as many dollars), to provide for the administration of the trust and for the acquisition of new books. In 1655 the same convent had inherited the library of Giambattista Castellani, chief physician of Gregory XV, with 12,000 scudi for the erection of a suitable edifice. Cardinal Casanata, moreover, ordered that the new library should be accessible to the public six hours daily, excepting feast-days. In addition to the library staff he provided for a college (theologi casanatenses) of six Dominicans of different nationalities (Italian, French, Spanish, German, English, Polish). Each of them must previously have received the degree of Doctor from one of the most famous universities of Europe. Aided by the resources of the library, they were to devote themselves to the defence and propagation of Catholic doctrine.

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