Treasures of state libraries - Finestre sull'Arte

Alfonso Magnanimo's Book of Hours, a masterpiece of Renaissance Naples

It is due to the King of Naples Alfonso V of Aragon, known as Alfonso the Magnanimous (Medina del Campo, 1396 - Naples, 1458), that in his dense program of support for the arts, letters and culture in general, he initiated a library that was among th...
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The Corrado Ricci Fund at the Library of Archaeology and Art History in Rome

A fund consisting of about three thousand items, including books, prints, photographs and miscellaneous materials: this is the size of the Corrado Ricci Fund of the Library of Archaeology and Art History (BiASA) in Rome, now part of the Vittoriano an...
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When Antonio Fogazzaro spent himself on heritage and saved Praglia Abbey.

Poet, writer, senator, several times a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, which, however, he never managed to win, a refined interpreter of the conflict between faith and science, and an investigator of the way Catholicism was preparing to ...
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The scrolls and codices of St. Scholastica, the tale of a thousand-year history

A library with a thousand-year history, and with materials that have spanned untold centuries of history. This is how one could describe the State Library of the National Monument of St. Scholastica, which owes its origins to St. Benedict: it is in f...
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A manuscript with a thousand years of history. The psalter-innary-collectary of Farfa Abbey.

A manuscript that has spanned a thousand years of history and has come down to us almost intact: this is Manuscript AF. 281 preserved at the State Library of the National Monument of Farfa, the rich library of the Abbey of Farfa, which is located nea...
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The study of obstetrics in the historical collections of the State Medical Library of Rome

Looking at the rich and varied library holdings of the State Medical Library of Rome, which has more than 145,000 publications including manuscripts, incunabula, cinquecentine and monographic and periodical works ranging from the 15th to the present ...
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Archaeological excavations in the library: the museum of the National Library of Cosenza

There are not many libraries that can boast a true archaeological itinerary within them, important enough to shape a museum: however, this is what happens at the National Library of Cosenza, which is not only the custodian of a substantial book herit...
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Antonio Vivaldi's autographs in Turin: story of a discovery

One might be surprised to learn where the most important collection of Antonio Vivaldi 's (Venice, 1678 - Vienna, 1741) autograph compositions is to be found: not in his native Venice, the city where the great composer spent most of his career, nor e...
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