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The Ambrosian Library, Milan

The Ambrosian library, founded by Cardinal Frederico Borromeo (1564-1631), through the donation of his personal collection of over 15,000 manuscripts and 30,000 printed books, epitomises the legacy of the Renaissance. This was a public library – one of the first in post Classical Europe, opening on December 8 1609. It includes manuscripts from Greece and Syria as well as Western Europe. Typically, it also houses a first class art collection, including Leonardo’s “A Musician” and many of the master’s most renowned manuscripts. Byron visited the library in 1816 and claims to have stolen a lock of Lucrezia Borgia’s hair, which he described as “the prettiest and fairest imaginable”.

Braidense National Library, Milan

Housed the Brera, one of Milan’s foremost art galleries, this library was founded in 1770 through a donation from the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria to the city. Comprising largely printed material, it was designed to complement the manuscript-rich Ambrosian. It opened to the public in 1786. In 1788, legal deposit was established with regard to all books published in the state of Milan and a further change in legal deposit law in 2006 requiring all publishers in the Milan region to submit to the Braidense, means this is now one of the most important libraries in Italy.

The Picolomini Library, Siena

Attached to the cathedral of Siena in Tuscany, the Piccolomini Library is a national treasure. Its construction was ordered around 1492 by Cardinal Frederico Piccolomini in memory of his uncle Pius II whose exceptional collection of humanist and religious manuscripts is still housed there. Among the frescoes by Pintoricchio, depicting the life of Pope Pius II, there is a panel representing the future pontiff’s visit to the court of King James I of Scotland. He persuades James to side with Charles VII of France against the English. According to the Commentaries, “His travelling expenses were entirely reimbursed, furthermore... a hundred ducats and two draught horses were given him”.

The Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence

Built in 1525 to emphasise that the Medici were more than mere merchants, the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, constructed under the patronage of the Medici Pope, Clement VII and designed by Michelangelo, is the Medici family library. At its core are the manuscripts collected by Cosimo the Elder (1389-1464) with the help of some of the most famous humanists of the time. Apparently, Michelangelo had planned a skylight to illuminate the famous vestibule but the Pope, obviously a better librarian than the artist, overruled the maestro on the grounds that it would cause the roof to leak.

The Library of San Marco, Florence

The interplay of art, thought, faith and architecture with books is everywhere evident in San Marco which houses some of the Renaissance’s greatest frescoes by Fra Angelico, Fra Bartolommeo and Domenico Ghirlandaio. It was also the seat of power for Girolamo Savanorola who held spiritual rule in Florence for a brief period in the late 15th century. This library is described by many as Europe’s first public library, and contains the manuscript collection of Niccolò Niccoli (1364 – 1437), inventor of the cursive hand known as italic and one of the first library cataloguers. It was designed by Michelozzo for Cosimo il Vecchio in 1441.

The Riccardi Library, Florence

Across the road from San Marco and nearby the Medici family home and banking headquarters, is the Riccardi library. Founded in the late 16th century, the collection was begun by Riccardo Romolo Riccardi. It opened to the public in 1715. Its frescoed reading rooms hold about 50,000 volumes and 4,000 manuscripts, many of them miniatures, but it is perhaps most noted for its possession of the manuscript of Dante’s Divina Comedia. The magnificent carved and gilded bookshelves, preserved perfectly intact, give a clear impression of an aristocratic private library at the end of the seventeenth century.

Angelo Maj Civic Library, Bergamo

The Angelo Maj Civic Library was founded in 1768 with the bequest of Cardinal Alessandro Furietti (1684-1764), who was a scholar of classical antiquities in Rome. Today the library ranks among Italy's best-stocked and most-used research and conservation libraries. Its collection is distinguished by the variety of its holdings: books, journals, newspapers, codices, incunabula, correspondences, maps, archives, music, photographs, coins, relics, paintings and busts. Since 1987, the Library has been part of the National Library Service.

To take a closer look at the holdings on the National Libraries of Italy go to www.sbn.it.