Interdisciplinary Seminar in Economic History: Books Go Public: The Consequences of Monastic Libraries Expropriation on Innovation
23/01/2024 (Seminars)
Bank of Greece, DIESOI
The Historical Archives of the Bank of Greece, in the context of the Interdisciplinary Seminar in Economic History, jointly organised with the Athens University of Economics and Business and Panteion University, invite you to the lecture entitled:
Books Go Public: The Consequences of Monastic Libraries Expropriation on Innovation
Speaker: Francesco Cinnirella (University of Bergamo)
A few words on the topic:
Access to useful knowledge has been proposed as crucial to foster modern economic growth. Yet, evidence on whether access to basic knowledge can affect innovation in a backward economy is scant. In this paper, we examine whether public access to knowledge, previously stored in monasteries, affected innovative activity. Anticlerical legislation enacted in Italy in 1866 suppressed religious orders, expropriated their properties, and their manuscripts were assigned to local libraries. We use data from a comprehensive survey of public libraries to reconstruct which municipality received volumes from monastic libraries. We link these data with newly digitized annual data on patents issued in Italy in the period 1863-1880. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we document that municipalities experiencing a rise in manuscripts significantly increased patenting activity. The effect is driven by the increase in the number of manuscripts in previously existing libraries. We show that the patenting advantage persisted also in the long-run.
The sessions are held between 17:00-19:00 at the Museum of the Bank of Greece, at 3, Amerikis Street, Athens, and are open to the public, without requiring prior registration. The lecture will be delivered in English.
The complete programme of upcoming lectures is available on the website of the Interdisciplinary Seminar in Economic History.
Relative links:
Poster of the event