The handwritten heritage of the National University Library of Turin comes largely from the collections of the House of Savoy. Amounting at approximately 4500 volumes at the beginning of the XX century, the collection was seriously damaged by the fire of 1904.
Of the very rich collection of codices kept in the Library, those in Hebrew language had a significant place in the past, because they were considered one of the richest and most complete collections in Europe. Among the manuscripts – of which today only a hundred codices and fragments dating from the XII until the XVI century survive – we have the illuminated codex set up in Ferrara in 1472 containing the Arba Turim of Jacob Ben Ascer and the Divina Corona Sabauda (1622) of Diodato Segre, an autograph handing down encomiastic compositions in praise of Charles Emanuel I of Savoy.
The Greek manuscript collection – also seriously damaged by the fire – consisted of 405 codices before 1904: of the current 309 manuscripts, around 90 have miniatures and decorations. Among the most famous manuscripts, we have a codex of In duodecim minores Prophetas commentarii of Teodoreto (late X – early XI century), enriched by illuminations reproducing on a gold background the medallions of the 12 prophets, and the De caelesti syderum dispositione of Giovanni Camatero, set up in the XVI century and certainly belonged to the Duke Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy.
The Latin manuscript collection consists of Latin, French, Italian and Spanish codices. Among the most significant documents in Latin we note the codex K of the Gospels (it hands down a portion of the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Matthew), probably written in the IV-V century and coming from the monastery of Bobbio; a codex of the commentary on the Apocalypse of Beato di Liébana, produced in the first quarter of the XII century; the so-called “Messale Rosselli”, dating back to the XIV century and set up for the cardinal Nicolas Rossell, in the service of the papal curia of Avignon; and the Historia Naturalis of Plinio commissioned between the XV and the XVI century by the Gonzaga family, with miniatures attributed to the school of Mantegna. Among the manuscripts in French, we note the Guiron le Courtois du bois verdoyant, made around 1465 and enriched with more than 100 illuminated sheets. Among the manuscripts in vernacular Italian, it is useful to mention two codices of the Mondo Creato of Torquato Tasso, dating back to the end of the XVI century.
Among the manuscripts entered the Library after 1904, the archives of Giovanni Flechia, Alberto Nota, Felice Romani and the Peyron family are of particular interest.
