The conservation process of the Antique Library Fund which consists of 22 thousand volumes, kept at the Gonzaga Institute in Palermo has been completed. “This heritage will give the opportunity to the younger generations to move forward on the shoulders of giants. At a time when we are looking towards the future with trepidation, we relaunch it on the foundation of a solid and beautiful past” Fr. Vitangelo Denora, the director, states.

Inside the rooms of the library of the Gonzaga Institute, an area can be found dedicated completely to a third of the ancient book collection of the Society of Jesus. The collection was formed following some administrative, pastoral, charitable and educational changes which in recent decades, have taken place within religious houses, theological schools, Jesuit institutes and seminaries, as well as after the closure of certain Jesuit houses and Institutes, thus determining the need to transfer certain assets elsewhere. These assets always included a library with extensive collections of ancient books. As a result of these movements and changes, tens of thousands of books collected over the years have been transferred to places where they could be stored and preserved, thus constituting three huge collections of ancient books, one in Gallarate, at the Aloysianum Institute, another in Naples at the 'Gesù Nuovo' Community, and a third in Palermo, at the Gonzaga Campus.

The books that have been collected in three different cities following the closure of certain Houses in the north, centre and south of the Province has actually led to the creation of three distinct libraries which, through the conservation and enhancement project, we have decided to bring together and establish one "Ancient Book Fund” which, considering only the books published by 1830, presently amounts to over 100,000 books.

The cataloguing of the books is still being implemented as the ancient books are still being transported to the three areas of the Province. Such a patrimony of books, consisting of incunabula and numerous sixteenth-century books, is of absolute importance and constitutes an extraordinary collection which is comparable to the ancient collections of the great historical libraries; that is, it represents an event of great cultural importance and, due to its intrinsic characteristics, has a unique historical and documentary significance. This huge and precious heritage is accessible through the online catalogue. A part of this heritage, which has been selected precisely because of the rarity and value of certain texts of some of the literary works of the Jesuits and the history of the Society of Jesus, has been digitized.