Pianarosa Library

Department of Asian and Islamic Art History,

The University of Bonn

Link: Lecture Series on Jaina Manuscripts

Link: Pianarosa Poster

Link: Pianarosa Library Catalogue

Link: Pianarosa Libray Offprints

The Pianarosa Jaina Library is a specialist collection on Jaina art and architecture, literature, religion and philosophy. Since 2011, it is housed in a separate room forming an integral part of the library of the Department of Asian and Islamic Art History at the University of Bonn. The roughly 1,600 scholarly monographs, edited volumes, traditional Jaina manuscripts and periodicals in European and Indian languages (e.g. Sanskrit, Hindi, Gujarati, Kannada etc.) were donated by the family of the late Paolo Pianarosa (1949 - 2010).

Mr Pianarosa, a specialist librarian from Turin (Italy) worked for the Soprintendenza Beni Librari della Regione Piemonte. He developed an interest in Jainism, particularly in Karnataka. He started taking private classes in Sanskrit in 1983 and continued studying the language for the next twelve years. In the early 1980s, Paolo Pianarosa commenced gathering books on Jaina subjects and from 2001 visited India regularly.

The more than one and a half thousand publications of the original Pianarosa private collection have been supplemented by additional books on Jaina art and architecture from the library of the Department of Asian and Islamic Art History. Further volumes will join the collection from the Gritli von Mitterwallner bequest (2012).

The aims of the Pianarosa library are to preserve the present collections, supplement them with further texts on Jainism and provide easy access for on-site study to scholars wishing to work with the material. The bibliographic records of the growing collection are being catalogued.

The Pianarosa Library Bonn will be inaugurated with a lecture series by international scholars from Germany, Italy, Belgium, France and Great Britain and opened officially with two scientific presentations and a public reception by the end of June 2012 (please see information below or back of flyer for further details).

If you would like further information on the work of the Pianarosa Library, wish to access the publications or would like to make a book gift or financial donation to aid the running and enlargement of the library, please contact the Department of Asian and Islamic Art History.

We are striving to further enhance the collections and to make the Pianarosa Library Bonn one of the world’s most comprehensive research and resource centres for material on Jaina studies.