The Pianarosa Jaina Library is a specialist collection on Jaina art and architecture, literature, religion and philosophy. Since 2011, it is housed in aseparate 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 PaoloPianarosa (1949 - 2010).
Mr. Paolo 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.
Department of Asian and Islamic Art History, The University of Bonn |