Pertusati Stock
Owner of one of the richest private libraries of the time, which had more than 24,000 volumes, Carlo Pertusati had opened his extraordinary collection to major literary figures of his time including scholars engaged with Muratori in the draft edition of Rerum italicarum scriptores. Most of it counted works relating religion, literature and history, of particular interest a remarkable collection of Bibles.
To his death in 1755, the heir Luke Pertusati decided to sell the collection of books that belonged to the deceased and started contacts with the court of Parma, who in 1763 sent a librarian of the Palatina, the Benedictine Andrea Mazza, to close the deals. It was then that Karl Firmian intervened: bibliophile and Minister Plenipotentiary of the State of Milan, in order to avoid its removal from the territory of Milan he imposed, in accordance with the Austrian Chancellor Kaunitz, the purchase of the collection. June the 1st of 1763 the contract was signed. With it the Congregation of State undertook to pay the heir Pertusati 240,000 lire and 500 gold pieces for the entire collection, with a commitment to make a tribute to Archduke Ferdinando, the third son Maria Theresa and Francesco I and future governor of Lombardia.
It was then the empress herself to allocate the collection for public use at the newly founded libraries Braidense of Milano and University of Pavia.
The stock is described in the catalog alphabetically sorted by authors and anonymous works available at the entrance of the library.