Luck would have it that I am able to make my own contribution in presenting the book “Le cinquecentine della biblioteca del Museo Correale di Terranova di Sorrento” (16th century antique book collection). Rather than discuss the merits of the book, however, which others far more accurateand capable than I will be analysing, particularly the author Prof. Mario Russo, I feel that a series of general comments on the Correale Museum’s Antique Book Trust collections would be more in order here. The Library of the Correale Museum of Sorrento, established in 1918, contains around 6,000 books and pamphlets, over 400 manuscripts, a conspicuous number of 16th and 17th century documents and a rich collection of Tasso editions from the 16th century onwards, with translations of his classic poem into foreign languages and certain Italian dialects. The main commendablefounders of the book trust were Manfredi Fasulo, Silvio Salvatore Gargiulo (Saltovar) and Mariano Vervena. In various measures the Sorrento Town Council, the National Library in aples, the Circolo Sorrentino, the Servi di Maria Archbrotherhood and countless individuals have played their part over the years in increasing the collection of both books and manuscripts, as did the donation of documents regarding noble Sorrentine families and diocesan prelates, adding to the conspicuous archive formed primarily of Correale family papers. I am convinced that, in terms of the background studies needed by someone describing the volumes or cataloguing policy, the approach to antique books from the classic periodaround the start of the 19th century cannot coincide with that adopted for modern-day written material. The time needed to draft thebook, of which I have a certain direct experience, is difficult to calculate given the understandable problems of research and analysis. I can confirm however that the book presented today marks an essential milestone in an ambitious project pursued for six years by the Correale Museum Library: completion of the cataloguing process and dissemination of details of theentire heritage. The one fact we know for certain regards the persons involved, clearly with differing levels of commitment, in producing the book along with Prof. Mario Russo, tenacious researcher and expert in the field of archaeology and printed library content. They are all employees of the Correale Museum. In describing the variousantique volumes and their illustrations, Prof. Russo, amongst other things the “manager” of the Correale library for the last six years, has played a fundamental role, or rather was the key figure in the mission, in offering experts an indispensable scientific research tool, in developing a greater awareness of the Correale Museum Library collection for allthose interested in the written word in the bibliographical sense, and in presenting to the public a document of extreme importance to the history of the town. The difference frompolicies followed in the field by most libraries astounds those finding themselves immersed in a prestigious niche sector such as that of antique books. The most common practice today, in fact, is to outsource this library-specific task toyoung professionals. The Correale Museum Library is herefore a blissful exception to this somewhat depressing state ofaffairs.

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