Centre for Don Bosco Studies

The Centre for Don Bosco Studies (CSDB) of UPS, Rome is an interdisciplinary centre among the faculties for scientific research on Don Bosco and on the facts pertaining to him, in the areas that characterize academic activity.

1. Salesian Spirituality, from the Faculty of Theology;
2. Salesian Education and Pedagogy, from the Faculty of Education.

These sections are made up of professors who hold specific chairs in their faculties, who courses that they handle, research and publications in their respective fields.

The CSDB Library

The CSDB has its own specialized library, located in special rooms of the Don Bosco Library.The bibliographic materials of the CSDB library are divided into 23 sections (see CSDB library sections). Consultation of the materials stored in the CSDB is permitted to all those who can have regular access to the Don Bosco Library (professors and students enrolled in the various Faculties of the UPS or in possession of the Library Access card). External scholars and researchers are admitted if they comply with the conditions of access to the Library.The CSDB materials can only be consulted during the opening hours of the Central Library and in the common reading rooms. All the printed volumes that are found in the CSDB library and are marked with location no. 50, can be traced by consulting the online catalogue of the Don Bosco Library.

Salesian OnLine Resources

It is a container of Sources, Studies, Researches and Digital Resources on the History of the Salesian Family, on the richness of the Educational Method and Salesian Spirituality, in collaboration between the CSDB and the Centre for Studies on the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians of the Pontifical Faculty of Sciences of Education “Auxilium".

An Historical Note

Starting from the academic year 1953-54 the young Pietro Stella, on the sidelines of his thesis work on "St. Francis de Sales and Don Bosco", began the acquisition of rare bibliographic material relating to Don Bosco, his work and his environment.

In December 1963, with the initiative of Pietro Braido - the then Dean of the Higher Institute of Pedagogy, now the Faculty of Educational Sciences - a group of experts met in Turin to study how to complete the critical edition of the published writings and the unpublished works of Don Bosco and contemporary testimonies on his life and activity, on the basis of reliable methodological criteria.

In 1965 the XIX General Chapter of the Salesian Society, dealing with the "Centres and aids for formation", proposed to "compile a collection of all the educational treasures inherited from Don Bosco and the first Salesians, through the establishment of a Centre for Historical Studies with Salesians, to better showcase the educational work of St. John Bosco, and express with precision the features of his method and his spirit".

In 1971 a "transitional operational orientation" of the Special General Chapter of the same Society recommended "planning the most suitable means to guarantee the development of a Centre for Studies on Don Bosco".

On 6 February 1973 the Rector Major, Fr Luigi Ricceri, decided to "entrust ad experimentum" the Centre for Studies on Don Bosco to the Faculty of Theology of the UPS, together with the commitment “of carrying forward the initiative of a series of publications and studies on the history of the Salesian Missions" marking the occasion of the centenary of the Salesian Missions.

Subsequently, under the direction of P. Stella and thanks to the collaboration of Pietro Ambrosio and Raffaele Farina, the anastatic edition of the printed works of Don Bosco was carried out (37 volumes published between 1976-1977).

Meanwhile, in the early 1980s, a "new reality" arose within the Salesian Society: the Salesian Historical Institute (= ISS), envisioned by the XXI General Chapter of 1978 and erected by the Rector Major, based in Rome ( Via della Pisana 1111), by a decree of 23 December 1981.

After the birth of the ISS, there was a need to redefine the purpose and setting of CSDB. Hence, with a letter dated 14 June 1984, E. Viganò, the Rector Major and Grand Chancellor of UPS, invited the Rector of UPS to draw attention to the revision of the Regulations of the CSDB and outlined some guidelines, in a way that the "two centres are reorganized as university structures with strictly academic functions, to support research, didactic, popular editorial activities connected above all with the specialisations of spirituality, catechesis and youth ministry, and with the chairs of missiology, preventive system and Salesian pedagogy".

On 19 November 1984, a "Commission for the study of the Regulations of the CSDB and CSMS", appointed by the Rector of UPS, R. Giannatelli, began the study of the "nature, purpose and structure "of the two Centres. The commission, consisting of professors from the Faculty of Theology (J. Picca and C. Semeraro) and of the Faculty of Sciences of Education (P. Braido and J.M. Prellezo), completed the drafting of the Statutes of the CSDB, the final text of which was approved by the Academic Senate of UPS on 6 November 1985. From this moment the CSDB has been characterised as an "inter-faculty institution (FSE and FT) of scientific research on Don Bosco and on the facts pertaining to him in the areas that characterise the academic activity of the Salesian Pontifical University".