Description

Essentials about the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in brief

For bookworms and avid readers, the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana (National St. Mark’s Library) is definitely worth a visit. Prominently located in the south of Piazza San Marco, opposite the Doge’s Palace, it is one of Italy’s largest national libraries and one of the world’s most important collections of Greek, Latin and Oriental manuscripts. At the same time, the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana is the only institution remaining from the time of the Republic of Venice.

The history of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana

The foundation of the library was supposed to be a donation made in 1362 by the famous poet and historian Francesco Petrarch, who bequeathed his collection of manuscripts to Venice. Six years later Petrarch left Venice together with his collection, which was scattered all over Europe after his death. Therefore, the donation of his private library, with over 700 volumes and 300 prints, by Cardinal Bessarion is today considered the starting point of the Biblioteca Marciana.

The library grew through the incorporation of library collections on the territory of Venice by the Republic and thanks to donations by other donors. Thanks to the unique collection of Greek manuscripts, the library became the center of humanistic studies since the 16th century.

In 1603 Venice enacted a law that a deposit copy of every book printed on Venetian territory had to be delivered to the Biblioteca Marciana, that is, it assumed the function of a national library of the Republic. After the fall of the Republic of Venice, many monasteries were secularized by Napoleon, and the library received further additions from monastery libraries.

The holdings of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana

The holdings of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana today amount to around 900,000 volumes, 25,000 prints, 13,000 manuscripts, 7,000 maps and 3,000 incunabula. The library specializes in classical philology and Venetian history. In addition, the library owns a valuable collection of musical materials as well as atlases and geographical maps such as Fra Mauro’s map of the world and the famous plan of the city of Venice by Jacopo de Barbari from 1500.

Among the countless treasures of the library are two editions of Homer, the Homerus Venetus A from the 11th century and the Homerus Venetus B from the 12th century. The library also owns the 56 volumes of the diaries of Marino Sanudo, one of the most important sources for Venetian history between 1496 and 1533, as well as the Chronologia magna of Fra Paolino with the first map of Venice, the Pliny manuscript for Pico della Mirandola from 1481, and a copy of the first book printed in Venice, the epistolae ad familiares of Cicero from 1481.

The condition of the donation by Cardinal Bessarion was that the library should be housed in a dignified place. However, the Republic of Venice took quite a long time to fulfill it. The Republic’s book collection was housed in a house on the Riva degli Schiavoni in 1362, then in St. Mark’s Basilica and later in the Doge’s Palace.

In 1534, the procurators planned a building for new offices. The upper floor was to house the library with reading and lecture rooms. In 1537, the architect Sansovino was commissioned by the procurators of San Marco to design a library building on the Piazzetta. Construction of the Libreria was begun at the Campanile. In 1545 the vault of the reading room collapsed and Sansovino went to prison. Thanks to the intercession of influential friends, however, he was released and was able to continue working, but had to repair the damage at his own expense. After his death, the architect Vincenzo Scamozzi completed the building from 1582 to 1588. The Libreria, especially the staircase and reading room, were splendidly decorated with works by Venice’s first artists, such as Veronese, Alessandro Vittoria and Tintoretto and Titian.

In 1812 the Biblioteca Marciana was moved back to the Doge’s Palace, as the Libreria building was to be used for other purposes. There it remained until 1904. Today the collection is once again housed in the Libreria and in the adjacent Mint Building, the Zecca, also built by Sansovino.

Website

bibliotecanazionalemarciana.cultura.gov.it

Opening hours

Admission fees

Free.

Address

Getting there

By public transport:

Vaporetto lines 2, 2/, 10, B and R: Stop S. Marco

By car:

Inaccessible.