This book chapter discusses the substantial library holdings of the German collector, connoisseur and diplomat of sorts, Philipp von Stosch (1691-1757). Described as a key toehold for the Radical Enlightenment in Italy, the famous...
moreThis book chapter discusses the substantial library holdings of the German collector, connoisseur and diplomat of sorts, Philipp von Stosch (1691-1757). Described as a key toehold for the Radical Enlightenment in Italy, the famous Bibliotheca Stoschiana attracted considerable interest not only from antiquarian and letterati communities in Rome and Florence, where Stosch was active from the early 1720s until his death in 1757, but also from the Inquisition for its large holdings of controversial books and titles listed in the pope’s Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Stosch was involved in the establishment of the first and short-lived masonic lodge in Florence in 1733. He and especially his library figured prominently in the interrogation and trial documents of the Inquisition in relation to the shutdown of the lodge following the papal bulla of 1738 and the imprisonment of its secretary, Tommaso Crudeli (1702-1745). A native of Küstrin in Brandenburg, Stosch had studied theology and had travelled widely in Northern Eu¬rope and Italy in his youth. Over the years he managed to build a wide and considerable network of highly useful contacts which included royalty and popes, statesmen, cardinals and notable members of the Republic of Letters. During long sojourns in The Hague and London in the 1710s, Stosch, a deist and freethinker, became involved with the Chevaliers de Jubilation and moved the circles of John Toland and the ‘radical Huguenot côterie’, i e the artist Bernard Picart and the bibliographers Prosper Marchand and Charles Levier. He kept in contact with these circles after settling permanently in Rome in 1722, and built a considerable collection of books on theology and philosophy, taking a special interest in Spinoza. Most famous as a connoisseur and antiquary however, Stosch had established himself in learned circles with a book on engraved gems signed by ancient engravers, illustrated and published in Amsterdam in 1724 by Picart. This interest was sparked during a visit to Paris in 1712, when he met and befriended Montfaucon, Baudelot de Dairval, Anselmo Banduri, Jean-Paul Bignon, Pierre Crozat and others. Stosch was an avid collector of many things, coins, gems, antiquities, paintings, drawings and prints, maps, erotica, arms and armour, and naturalia—areas that were all reflected in his rich library which was already considerable before he settled in Italy. This first library remained in the Netherlands until 1739, when Stosch sent for it. He was then residing in voluntary exile in Florence, as a nightly assault on his carriage in January 1731 had made him leave Rome. In Florence, the Bibliotheca Stoschiana became an intersecting point for various overlapping European networks. The holdings were continuously expanded with the help of contacts and booksellers in Italy and the North such as Marchand, Levier, Caspar Fritch, Pieter Boudewijnsz van der Aa, Bernardo Paperini, Giuseppe Rigacci and Antonio Ristori. The chapter discusses the contents of the library, its significance for learned circles in Rome and Florence, its sale and dispersion after Stosch’s death, as well as its afterlife and later controversies.
