Historical notices

Urbaniana University Press arises from the sacred congregation de propaganda fide and the urban college print works. The first printed book was probably a Greek version of Guía de pecadores written by the Dominican friar Luigi de Granada, in 1588. This work was later followed by the publication of disputes, grammar, law and spiritual books, written in service of oriental missionaries.

The creation of printing works intending at the spread of Faith was felt so necessary that they were established soon after the institution of De Propaganda Fide Congregation founded by Pope Gregory XV, in 1622) and they preceded the foundation of Urban College, the first seat of University, created by Urban VIII in 1627. The firm conviction of the necessity of the printing works was probably determined by the sending of Lucas Holsta memorial (Holstenius, 1596-1661) to Propaganda Fide, in 1622. A converted German, Holstenius pointed out in his memorial the importance of learned contributions and of their printed diffusion in order to promote the Church's unity. "A scholar" he said "is worthier than hundreds preachers". A great scholar himself, Holstenius witnessed this statement throughout his life.

So, the creation of printing works was engendered by the urgent need of preaching Christian Faith. The details of its institution are described in the acts of the general congregation held on the 3rd of June 1626.

In the same year the emperor Ferdinand II donated to Propaganda Fide the Illyrian characters of St. Jerome and of St. Cyril, western glagolitic and cyrillic respectively. With these character, travelling from Austria to Rome and passing from Ancona, with the addiction of some other Greek and Latin characters found in Rome, Giovanni Bandini and Francesco Paolini, correctors of the Vatican Printing House, started the work of Propaganda printing house. Highly esteemed since its very beginning, the new printing house depended on the printing prefecture, whose first prefect was Cardinal Giulio Bantivoglio. Later, a prefecture charged with the correction of Eastern churches' books was created.

The first catalogue, published in 1639, contained the titles of the books already published since 1628 while the Propaganda Printing House's second catalogue, published in 1667, is a wonderful example of its missionary strength and technical expertise. Conceived by the greek Leo Allatius, it presented some excellent works in service of missionaries, such as the ones by Abraham Ecchellensis (1600-1664), by Allatius himself, by Cardinal Bona, by Discalced Carmelite missionaries, written in various western and eastern languages.

When the fifth catalogue was printed in 1761, edited by Costantino Ruggeri, the printing technique had highly developed. Propaganda Printing House appeared to be now established. The supervisor of the printing works was then Agostino Rufo from Verona, while the young Giambattista Bodoni (Saluzzo 1740 - Parma 1813) was just an apprentice.Once arrived at Rome in 1758, Bodoni started to work in Propaganda Printing House till 1767, when he moved to the Ducal Court of Parma and he soon became "the printer of the kings" throughout Europe, though not giving up working for Propaganda Printing House.

Despite its spolitation during the French Revolution, the Printing House soon recovered and its missionary work was precious throughout XIX century. In 1909 its Acta Sanctae Sedis paved the way and in the same year and always in the service of the Holy See, propaganda fide printing house was incorporated into the present Vatican Polyglot Printing House.

It is worth remembering that, since its very foundation, Urbaniana University was attended by some important students and professors, such as S. Oliver Plunkett (1625-1681) and John Henry Newman (1801-1890).

Holding fast its origins and its motto Euntes Docete, Urbaniana University Press contributes, through its works, to University's missionary task and intent of interculturation of faith, at the beginning of the third millennium.

Since 1997, the editorial activity has been relaunched thanks to the creation of a new executive, editorial and commercial structure, conforming to the criteria of professional publishing and encouraged by Cardinal Jozef Tomko.

A deeper attention has been paid to the quality of editing through a very careful and scrupulous editorial work and through the creation of elegant and pleasant covers.

The catalogue has been enriched with a collection of very appreciated handbooks.

Among the most recently published works, it is worth remembering:

 “Relazione delle quattro parti del mondo” di Francesco Ingoli (a cura di Fabio Tosi), “Dizionario Interdisciplinare di Scienza e Fede” (a cura di Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti e Alberto Strumia), “Costituzione dei Santi Apostoli per mano di Clemente” di Domenico Spada e Dimitrios Salchas, “Il Fenomeno Religioso oggi. Tradizione, mutamento, negazione” (a cura di Gaspare Mura e Roberto Cipriani), “Passione per l’Africa. Carte missionarie ed imperiali sulla prima evangelizzazione in Uganda e Sudan. 1848-1923” di Mario Cisternino, “Dizionario Storico e Teologico delle Missioni” di Battista Mondin, "Dizionario di Letteratura Cristiana Antica”, traduzione a cura di Celestino Noce del “Lexikon der Antiken Christlichen Literatur” di S. Döpp e W. Geerlings (III ed. Herder).

Among the planned works it is worth remembering:

 "Dizionario delle Scienze della Missione" in co editing with San Paolo Editing and "Lexikon di Letteratura Cristiana Antica" traduzione in italiano del famoso "Lexikon der Antiken Christlichen Literatur" published by Herder.