CODICI BOBBIESI. Codici Bobbiesi della Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria di Torino. Collezione Paleografica Bobbiese. Cipolla, Carlo (editor). LIMITED TO 170 COPIES ONLY

wo volumes (Testo + Atlante). Milano: Ulrico Hoepli, 1907. Atlas folio. First Edition. Large folio. Vol. I: Testo (text); Vol. II: Atlante (Atlas of 90 plates). Bound in contemporary quarter calf over marbled boards, spines lettered in gilt. Some occasional mild foxing. Plates crisp and clean. A near fine copy.
A monumental palaeographic survey of the precious Bobbio manuscripts, the early medieval codices once housed in the Abbey of Bobbio, one of the most important centres of Hiberno-Lombard scholarship on the Continent. An outstanding documentary record of the Irish monastic legacy on the Continent, with Bobbio surviving as a major conduit of Irish manuscript tradition after the mission of St Columbanus.
The Codici Bobbiesi are among the most celebrated survivors of the Bobbio Abbey’s library, founded by the Irish missionary St Columbanus in AD 614. Bobbio became one of the most influential scriptoria in medieval Europe, maintaining strong ties with Irish monastic learning. After centuries of dispersal, the most important codices were transferred to Turin in the eighteenth century.
The catastrophic fire at the Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria (26 January 1904) destroyed or severely damaged many of these irreplaceable manuscripts. This publication, undertaken under the scholarly direction of Carlo Cipolla, and printed in deluxe collotype, was conceived as a permanent visual record of the treasures whose survival could no longer be guaranteed.
The plates reproduce the characteristic Insular script, Celtic ornament, and hybrid Hiberno-Lombard decoration that make the Bobbio manuscripts central to the study of early Irish book production on the Continent. Sets are seldom found complete, especially with the full suite of 90 plates present and in good condition, as here. The work remains indispensable for scholars of Irish monasticism, palaeography, Insular art, and early medieval textual transmission
Founded c. 614 by St Columbanus, Bobbio emerged as one of the most intellectually vibrant monastic centres in early medieval Europe. Its scriptoria, drawing upon both Irish and continental models, produced manuscripts whose hybrid Insular-Continental script, ornament, and textual traditions formed a unique branch of early Western scribal culture. The Bobbio library also became a repository for manuscripts brought from Ireland and Gaul, creating one of the richest early medieval codicological assemblages known to modern scholarship.

The 1907 Codici Bobbiesi is significant for two reasons:
1. Reconstruction of a Dispersed Archive. In 1904, a devastating fire consumed a large portion of the
Biblioteca Nazionale di Torino, destroying or severely damaging many Bobbio manuscripts. Cipolla’s work thus provides a crucial documentary record, preserving images, textual summaries, and palaeographic observations of items that have since been lost or fragmented. For many manuscripts, these plates constitute the only surviving visual evidence of their pre-fire state.
2. Technical Mastery of Collotype Reproduction Hoepli’s collotype printing is of exceptionally high quality, retaining tonal variation and line detail to a degree that later photomechanical processes often fail to match. As a result, the atlas allows scholars to study Insular initials, interlace patterns, decorative geometry, and the structure of scriptorium hands with remarkable clarity. Several plates, particularly those reproducing the Evangelarium (O. IV. 20) and Jonas’s Vita S. Columbani, are frequently cited in palaeographic literature due to their fidelity.
Saint Columbanus (c.543-615) Columbán, Columba the Younger - was one of the most influential figures of the early medieval Irish monastic movement and among the greatest missionaries produced by Ireland’s “Age of Saints.” Born in Leinster around 543, he received his early training at Bangor, under the renowned abbot Comgall, where a strict ascetic discipline and a rigorous intellectual formation shaped his spiritual worldview. Bangor’s monastic culture, known for its scriptural learning, psalmody, and missionary zeal, provided the foundation for Columbanus’s later efforts on the Continent.
Around 590, Columbanus left Ireland with twelve companions during the great wave of Irish peregrinatio - voluntary exile for Christ. Their journey brought them first to Gaul, where Columbanus founded influential monasteries at Annegray, Luxeuil, and Fontaines. These houses introduced Irish customs of monastic discipline, penitential practice, and biblical study into Frankish territories, and soon became centres of learning that attracted large communities.

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