The Biblioteca Vallicelliana was founded by Achille Stazio (1581), and contains some valuable manuscripts, including a Latin Bible of the 8th century attributed to Alcuin, and some inedited writings of Baronius. It now contains 28,000 vols. and 2315 MSS. Since 1884 it has been in the custody of the R. Società Romana di Storia Patria. The Biblioteca Lancisiana, founded in 1711 by G. M. Lancisi, is valuable for its medical collections.
In 1877 Professor A. Sarti presented to the city of Rome his collection of fine-art books, 10,000 vols., which was placed in charge of the Accademia di San Luca, which already possessed a good artistic library. The Biblioteca Centrale Militare (1893) includes 66,000 printed vols. and 72,000 maps and plans relating to military affairs; and the Biblioteca della R. Accad. di S. Cecilia (1875), a valuable musical collection of 40,000 volumes and 2300 MSS.
Among the private libraries accessible by permission, the Chigiana (1660) contains 25,000 vols. and 2877 MSS. The Corsiniana, founded by Clement XII. (Lorenzo Corsini) is rich in incunabula, and includes one of the most remarkable collections of prints, the series of Marc-Antonios being especially complete. It was added to the Accademia dei Lincei in 1884 and now extends to 43,000 vols. The library of the Collegium de Propaganda Fide was established by Urban VIII. in 1626. It owes its present richness almost entirely to testamentary gifts, among which may be mentioned those of Cardinals Borgia, Caleppi and Di Pietro. It is a private collection for the use of the congregation and of those who belong to it, but permission may be obtained from the superiors. There are at least thirty libraries in Subiaco. Rome which are more or less accessible to the public. At Subiaco, about 40 m. from Rome, the library of the Benedictine monastery of Santa Scolastica is not a very large one, comprising only 6000 printed vols. and 400 MSS., but the place is remarkable as having been the first seat of typography in Italy. It was in this celebrated Protocoenobium that Schweynheim and Pannartz, fresh from the dispersion of Fust and Schoeffer’s workmen in 1462, established their press and produced a series of very rare and important works which are highly prized throughout Europe. The Subiaco library, although open daily to readers, is only visited by students who are curious to behold the cradle of the press in Italy, and to inspect the series of original editions preserved in their first home.
The Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Florence, formed from the union of Magliabechi’s library with the Palatina, is the largest after the Vittorio Emanuele at Rome. The Magliabechi collection became public property in 1714, and with accessions Florence. from time to time, held an independent place until 1862, when the Palatina (formed by Ferdinand III., Grand Duke of Tuscany), was incorporated with it. An old statute by which a copy of every work printed in Tuscany was to be presented to the Magliabechi library was formerly much neglected, but has been maintained more rigorously in force since 1860. Since 1870 it receives by law a copy of every book published in the kingdom. A Bollettino is issued describing these accessions. There are many valuable autograph originals of famous works in this library, and the MSS. include the most important extant codici of Dante and later poets, as well as of the historians from Villani to Machiavelli and Guicciardini. Amongst the printed books is a very large assemblage of rare early impressions, a great number of the Rappresentazioni of the 16th century, at least 200 books printed on vellum, and a copious collection of municipal histories and statutes, of testi di lingua and of maps. The Galileo collection numbers 308 MSS. The MS. portolani, 25 in number, are for the most part of great importance; the oldest is dated 1417, and several seem to be the original charts executed for Sir Robert Dudley (duke of Northumberland) in the preparation of his Arcano del Mare. The library contains (1909) 571,698 printed vols., 20,222 MSS., 9037 engravings, 21,000 portraits, 3847 maps, and 3575 incunabula. In 1902 the Italian parliament voted the funds for a new building which is being erected on the Corso dei Tintori close to the Santa Croce Church.
The Biblioteca Nazionale of Milan, better known as the Braidense, founded in 1770 by Maria Theresa, consists of 243,000 printed vols. 1787 MSS. and over 3000 autographs. It comprises nearly 2300 books printed in the 15th century (including the Milan. rare Monte Santo di Dio of Bettini, 1477), 913 Aldine impressions, and a xylographic Biblia Pauperum. Amongst the MSS. are an early Dante and autograph letters of Galileo, some poems in Tasso’s autograph, and a fine series of illustrated service-books, with miniatures representing the advance of Italian art from the 12th to the 16th century. One room is devoted to the works of Manzoni.
The Biblioteca Nazionale at Naples, though only opened to the public in 1804, is the largest library of that city. The nucleus from which it developed was the collection of Cardinal Seripando, which comprised many MSS. and printed books of Naples. great value. Acquisitions came in from other sources, especially when in the year 1848 many private and conventual libraries were thrown on the Neapolitan market, and still more so in 1860. The Biblical section is rich in rarities, commencing with the Mainz Bible of 1462, printed on vellum. Other special features are the collection of testi di lingua, that of books on volcanoes, the best collection in existence of the publications of Italian literary and scientific societies and a nearly complete set of the works issued by the Bodoni press. The MSS. include a palimpsest containing writings of the 3rd, 5th and 6th centuries under a grammatical treatise of the 8th, 2 Latin papyri of the 6th century, over 50 Latin Bibles, many illuminated books with miniatures, and the autographs of G. Leopardi. There are more than 40 books printed on vellum in the 15th and 16th centuries, including a fine first Homer; and several MS. maps and portolani, one dating from the end of the 14th century. The library contains about 389,100 printed vols., 7990 MSS. and 4217 incunabula.
The Biblioteca Nazionale of Palermo, founded from the Collegio Massimo of the Jesuits, with additions from other libraries of that suppressed order, is rich in 15th-century books, which Palermo. have been elaborately described in a catalogue printed in 1875, and in Aldines and bibliographical curiosities of the 16th and following centuries, and a very complete series of the Sicilian publications of the 16th century, many being unique. The library contains 167,898 printed vols., 2550 incunabula, 1537 MSS.
The Biblioteca Nazionale Universitatia of Turin took its origin in the donation of the private library of the House of Savoy, which in 1720 was made to the University by Vittorio Amedeo II. The disastrous fire of January 1904 destroyed about 24,000 Turin. out of the 300,000 vols. which the library possessed, and of the MSS., the number of which was 4138, there survive now but 1500 in a more or less deteriorated condition. Among those that perished were the palimpsests of Cicero, Cassidorus, the Codex Theodosianus and the famous Livre d’Heures. What escaped the fire entirely was the valuable collection of 1095 incunabula, the most ancient of which is the Rationale Divinorum Officiorum of 1459. Since the fire the library has been enriched by new gifts, the most conspicuous of which is the collection of 30,000 vols. presented by Baron Alberto Lumbroso, principally relating to the French Revolution and empire. The library was in 1910 about to be transferred to the premises of the Palazzo of the Debito Publico. The Biblioteca Marciana, or library of St Mark at Venice, was traditionally founded Venice. in 1362 by a donation of MSS. from the famous Petrarch (all of them now lost) and instituted as a library by Cardinal Bessarione in 1468. The printed vols. number 417,314. The precious contents include 12,106 MSS. of great value, of which more than 1000 Greek codices were given by Cardinal Bessarione, important MS. collections of works on Venetian history, music and theatre, rare incunabula, and a great number of volumes, unique or exceedingly rare, on the subject of early geographical research. Amongst the MSS. is a Latin Homer, an invaluable codex of the laws of the Lombards, and the autograph MS. of Sarpi’s History of the Council of Trent. Since the fall of the republic and the suppression of the monasteries a great many private and conventual libraries have been incorporated with the Marciana, which had its first abode in the Libreria del Sansovino, from which in turn it was transferred in 1812 to the Palazzo Ducale, and from this again in 1904 to the Palazzo della Zecca (The Mint).
Among the university libraries under government control some deserve special notice. First in historical importance comes the Biblioteca della Università at Bologna, founded by the naturalist U. Aldrovandi, who bequeathed by his will in University libraries. 1605 to the senate of Bologna his collection of 3800 printed books and 360 MSS. Count Luigi F. Marsili increased the library by a splendid gift in 1712 and established an Istituto delle Scienze, reconstituted as a public library by Benedict XIV. in 1756. The printed books number 255,000 vols., and the MSS. 5000. The last comprise a rich Oriental collection of 547 MSS. in Arabic, 173 in Turkish, and several in Persian, Armenian and Hebrew. Amongst the Latin codices is a Lactantius of the 6th or 7th century. The other noteworthy articles include a copy of the Armenian gospels (12th century), the Avicenna, with miniatures dated 1194, described in Montfaucon’s Diarium Italicum, and some unpublished Greek texts. Amongst the Italian MSS. is a rich assemblage of municipal histories. Mezzofanti was for a long time the custodian here, and his own collection of books has been incorporated in the library, which is remarkable likewise for the number of early editions and Aldines which it contains. A collection of drawings by Agostino Caracci is another special feature of worth. The grand hall with its fine furniture in walnut wood merits particular attention. The Biblioteca della Università at Naples was established by Joachim Murat in 1812 in the buildings of Monte Oliveto, and has thence been sometimes called the “Biblioteca Gioacchino.” Later it was transferred to the Royal University of studies, and was opened to the public in 1827. It was increased by the libraries of several monastic bodies. The most copious collections relate to the study of medicine and natural science. It possesses about 300,000 printed books, 404 incunabula, 203 Aldines, and 196 Bodoni editions, but the more important incunabula and MSS. about the middle of the 19th century went to enrich the Biblioteca Nazionale. Other important university libraries are those of Catania (1755), 130,000 vols.; Genoa (1773), 132,000 vols., 1588 MSS.; Pavia (1763), 250,000 vols., 1100 MSS.; Padua (200,000 vols., 2356 MSS.), which in 1910 was housed in a new building; Cagliari (90,000 vols.); Sassari (74,000 vols.). Messina, destroyed in the earthquake of 1908, preserved, however, beneath its ruins the more important part of its furniture and fittings, and in 1910 was already restored to active work, as regards the portion serving for the reawakened Faculty of Law in the University.
Chief among the remaining government libraries comes the world-famed Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana at Florence, formed from the collections of Cosimo the Elder, Pietro de’ Medici, and Lorenzo the Magnificent (which, however, passed away from the family after Mediceo-Laurenziana. the expulsion of the Medici from Florence, and were repurchased in 1508 by Cardinal Giovanni, afterwards Leo X.). It was first constituted as a public library in Florence by Clement VII., who charged Michelangelo to construct a suitable edifice for its reception. It was opened to the public by Cosimo I. in 1571, and has ever since gone on increasing in value, the accessions in the 18th century alone being enough to double its former importance. The printed books it contains are probably no more than 11,000 in number, but are almost all of the highest rarity and interest, including 242 incunabula of which 151 editiones principes. It is, however, the precious collection of MSS., amounting to 9693 articles, which gives its chief importance to this library. They comprise more than 700 of dates earlier than the 11th century. Some of them are the most valuable codices in the world—the famous Virgil of the 4th or 5th century, Justinian’s Pandects of the 6th, a Homer of the 10th, and several other very early Greek and Latin classical and Biblical texts, as well as copies in the handwriting of Petrarch, about 100 codices of Dante, a Decameron copied by a contemporary from Boccaccio’s own MS., and Cellini’s MS. of his autobiography. Bandini’s catalogue of the MSS. occupies 13 vols. folio, printed in 1764-1778. Administratively united to the Laurentian is the Riccardiana rich in MSS. of Italian literature, especially the Florentine (33,000 vols., 3905 MSS.). At Florence the Biblioteca Marucelliana, founded in 1703, remarkable for its artistic wealth of early woodcuts and metal engravings, was opened to the public in 1753. The number of these and of original drawings by the old masters amounts to 80,000 pieces; the printed volumes number 200,000, the incunabula 620, and the MSS. 1500. Modena. At Modena is the famous Biblioteca Estense, so called from having been founded by the Este family at Ferrara in 1393; it was transferred to Modena by Cesare D’Este in 1598. Muratori, Zaccaria and Tiraboschi were librarians here, and made good use of the treasures of the library. It is particularly rich in early printed literature and valuable codices. Between 1859 and 1867 it was known as the Biblioteca Palatina. The printed vols. number 150,570, the incunabula 1600, the MSS. 3336, besides the 4958 MSS. and the 100,000 autographs of the Campori collection.