THE DA
PONTE
COLLECTION
Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749-1838) wrote the librettos to Mozart's
Marriage of Figaro,
Don Giovanni and
Cosi Fan Tutte.
Living in America after 1805, he helped establish the Italian Opera House and gave the first college Italian language course.
The Library's
1838 printed catalog of books has a disproportionately large number of Italian books. This is the result of da Ponte who founded his Italian Library Society within the building in 1827. Six hundred books were placed here for his 46 privately instructed students to read.
At Columbia College, he was paid according to the number of students who enrolled. None signed up for his second year of classes. And although he remained on the faculty for thirteen years, he never had another student.
Da Ponte called himself "Professor sine exemplo" (Professor without example).
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