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The paper examines the manuscripts and printed editions of Medieval and Humanistic works preserved in the library of Castiglione del Terziere, highlighting Bononi’s preference for writings in the historiographic genre, with specific regard to the history of Florence. Among the volumes examined – all ancient editions, incunabula and cinquecentine, extremely valuable and rare – we dwell above all on the exemplars (by Leonardo Bruni, Biondo Flavio, Iacopo Foresti) that bear Bononi’s autograph annotations, because they testify to his interest in the geographical area of Lunigiana and Dante’s biography.

The paper examines the Leopardian materials acquired and preserved by Loris Bononi at the library of the Centro Studi Umanistici Niccolò V in Castiglione del Terziere. The discourse opens by investigating the relationship between Bononi and Leopardi and the possible influences of the latter on the former's writing (both published and unpublished). The analysis of the Leopardi's sections begins with the ‘self-description’ the poet made of himself in a letter to Carlo Pepoli, which is part of this collection. The second part of the essay is devoted to the unpublished manuscripts of Giacomo’s sister, Paolina, and Carlo Leopardi’s wife, Teresa Teja: three letters allowing the reconstruction of the biographical context of two figures who contributed to keeping alive the first hand memory of Leopardi.

This paper presents the Aristotelian volume (comprising two Venetian editions bound together) that originally belonged to Ulisse Aldrovandi, was later owned by Loris Jacopo Bononi, and is now housed at the library of the Terziere castle. Following an essential introduction to Aldrovandi's library and its organization, the author describes the volume and focuses on Aldrovandi's marginal notes on the Sixteenth-century edition of the pseudo-Aristotelian Problemata (translated by Theodoro Gaza) with the commentary by Pietro da Abano. Three of these annotations are particularly significant as Aldrovandi explicitly refers to the Problemata and the commentary in this copy in at least two of his printed works (Monstrorum historia and Quadrupedum historia).

The essay focuses on the library of the castle of Castiglione del Terziere, in the Apennines, established by the physician and bibliophile Loris Jacopo Bononi (1929-2012). It belongs to the still little-studied typology of private libraries located outside the cities, but open to public use. With authentic bibliophile passion, Bononi created a collection of books closely linked to the history of the Lunigiana area, to the authors of the Italian Humanism and Renaissance, and to Italian literature, from its origins to the Nineteenth century. The library has always been open to scholars and visitors, and in the near future the analytical cataloging of the entire book heritage would be necessary, as well as the valorisation through digital technologies.

The essay focuses on a white felt envelope which contains three rare bibliographic works which entered the library of Loris Jacopo Bononi in different periods (Confessione utile e breve di Bernardino da Feltre, s.d.t; Luigi Pulci, La Giostra di Lorenzo de’ Medici, Firenze, Francesco di Iacopo cartolaio, 1518; Opera vecchia nella quale intenderai uno insonio con la sua tramutatione et altre napo[li]tane, s.d.t. [1590]) and, on the basis of Bononi's poetics, tries to offer an explanation of why their owner had placed them together, almost as if he could see in them three symbols of peculiar aspects of the Italian Renaissance.

This article traces the history of the copy of Niccolò Machiavelli’s ‘Florentine Histories’ housed in the Bononi book collection. It focuses on its owners, particularly Benedetto Varchi (co-owner of the volume along with his student Carlo Strozzi), who is responsible for the numerous marginal notes added along the pages. These annotations, in turn, are a valuable document for the study of the different phases of the composition of Varchi’s Storia fiorentina [‘Florentine History’], and reveal how he initially considered Machiavelli’s Histories as a model to follow, which he later abandoned. For this reason, the article examines marginalia on the Bononi copy, establishing a typology and identifying their use in the writing process of Varchi’s Storia.

The essay aims to illustrate some pieces from the Bononi collection housed at the Terziere Castle in the province of Massa Carrara, focusing particularly on the Boccaccio volumes: much of the Certaldo author's production is present, in volumes of high value mostly from the Renaissance period, but especially The Decameron, attested by numerous copies spanning from the dawn of printing to the twentieth century. It is evident in Bononi's intentions not only the desire to indulge a collector's impulse, but also the willingness to trace the publishing history of one of the major works of our literature, combining precious antiquarian intuition with a healthy historicist spirit.