Cutting and Surroundings. The Choir Library of Sant’Agostino in Siena Between Conservation and Dispersion

Abstract

The paper displays the first results of the cataloguing of the choir books of Sant’Agostino in Siena, a project in progress at the Central Library of the Augustinian Province of Italy (Viterbo). This case study is also a precious opportunity to retrace the dense network (in some cases very complex) that connects this liturgical library to the major national and international, public and private, collections. The choir books of the Augustinians of Siena show in fact – as it often happens for this type of manuscripts – considerable shortcomings, produced by the removals aimed at offering the art market illuminated cutouts. Starting from the album of fragments collected in the 1830s by James Dennistoun, the paper illustrates the cuttings identified as belonging to the choir books of Sant’Agostino, focusing on the difficulties encountered in the process of reconstruction, partly due to the old descriptive customs of this kind of material.