Museum Italicum

MUSEUM ITALICUM
Mabillon, Jean
2 volumes. Paris, 1687-1689

Jean Mabillon was a very erudite and productive scholar who was a monk of the French Benedictine Congregation of St. Maur during the 17th century. He is often labeled as a principal founder of modern historical method. This book gives a sort of literary travelogue through libraries and archives of church institutions in Italy. It also contains the first print editions of several important sources of Catholic worship books and other documents that are important for Catholic and Benedictine church history.

Facing page 122 of volume 1 is a pull out engraving of the great Abbey of Monte Cassino (below) and the surrounding territory as it must have appeared to Mabillon and his traveling companion as they arrived there in 1685.

Summary written by Father Denis Meade, O.S.B.

Abbey of Monte Cassino: