The Library of the Monastery of Fitero late Renaissance and Early Baroque

Abstract

The article describes the time of the creation of library of the Cistercian monastery of Fitero (Navarre). Over the years it became one of the most important in the kingdom, until its decline trougth secularisations and confiscations of property suffered by the convent in the 19^th century. The data on its initial phase come from the books of the abbots Fray Marcos de Villalva and Fray Ignacio Fermín de Ibero, both originally from Castile, who were appointed abbots vy virtue of the righ to royal patronage exercised by King Philip II. Although most of the books belong, as could be expected to an ecclesiastical library, a surprising case inthat of Abbot Ibero for the wide range of subjets he covers and the high quality of the editions, often accompanied by engravings and musical notes. Through these books, which are either identified through the exlibris or references ot notarial list, one can perceive the important ecclesiastical issues of the day: the reform of the monasteries and the practice of Orthodox Catholicism, and also secular issues that came to the knowledge of the monastery related to the two great powers of the Catholic world, the monarchy and the papacy.