The Biblioteca Fabroniana is a public library, founded in 1726, and located on Piazzetta San Filippo #1 in

Pistoia Pistoia (, is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of a province of the same name, located about west and north of Florence and is crossed by the Ombrone Pistoiese, a tributary of the River Arno. It is a typi ...

, region of

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze''). Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...

, Italy.

Reading Room

History

The library was founded in 1726 in a site adjacent to the church of Santi Filippo e Prospero. The basis of the collection was the library of the Cardinal Carlo Agostino Fabroni. Refurbishment of the building to hold the library began in 1722; the endowment conditioned that the library ''"always and forever serve with ease the public needs of the city''. The cardinal's collection was transported from Rome to Livorno by two galleys commissioned by

Pope Benedict XIII Pope Benedict XIII ( la, Benedictus XIII; it, Benedetto XIII; 2 February 1649 – 21 February 1730), born Pietro Francesco Orsini and later called Vincenzo Maria Orsini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 29 May ...

, and then overland to Pistoia. The library was first housed and administered by the Pistoiese Oratorian congregation. It was open to the public in 1730 and competed with the other large library of Pistoia, the Biblioteca Forteguerriana. In 1810, following the suppression of the

Oratorians An Oratorian is a member of one of the following religious orders: * Oratory of Saint Philip Neri (Roman Catholic), who use the postnominal letters C.O. * Oratory of Jesus (Roman Catholic) * Oratory of the Good Shepherd (Anglican) * Teologisk Orator ...

, the administration moved to the City, and after the fall of the Napoleonic regime, to the Chapter of the Cathedral Chapter, as envisaged in the bequest of Fabroni. The Cathedral still manages the facility.

Structure and Collection

The building was refitted to make a library by Francesco Maria Gatteschi. The portal with the superiorly concave tympanum consisting of two half-arches, nestles the coat of arms of Cardinal Fabroni. The staircase entrance is decorated with

quadratura Illusionistic ceiling painting, which includes the techniques of perspective ''di sotto in sù'' and ''quadratura'', is the tradition in Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo art in which ''trompe-l'œil'', perspective tools such as foreshortening, an ...

frescoes, and opens to a large reading room, dominated by a statue of the cardinal by Gaetano Masoni. On either side of the entrance are two marble sculptures, depicting the "Birth" and "The Deposition" by Augusto Cornacchini. The scroll above the door threatens the curse of excommunication to any that steals a book from the room. The book stacks are two stories high, and at each corner of the room is a small reading cubicle. The library was further enlarged in 1869 by the Countess Eugenia Caselli, the last female descendant of the Fabroni family, in 1917 by the collection of the Pistoiese lawyer Tommaso Gelli and by the addition of collections from both the Oratorions and Franciscans from the Giaccherino. Assets now include nearly 20,000 printed volumes, including precious incunabula and over 400 manuscripts. The cardinals collection included nearly 2,400

folio The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...

s, 1,800 quartos, and 2,460 sesti; the collection covered subjects of theology, philosophy, history, geography, mathematics, and philology. It was notable for including books under censure by the Church, but accessible to the cardinal by virtue of his post as Secretary of the

Propaganda Fide Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

. The library collections now cover the works of the Fathers of the Church; ecclesiastical histories; rules of monastic orders; hagiographic works of the

Sacred Rota Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...

; documents on

Jansenism Jansenism was an early modern theological movement within Catholicism, primarily active in the Kingdom of France, that emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. It was declared a heresy by t ...

; the

Council of Trent The Council of Trent ( la, Concilium Tridentinum), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trento, Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italian Peninsula, Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation ...

; and the ''Bolla

Unigenitus ''Unigenitus'' (named for its Latin opening words ''Unigenitus dei filius'', or "Only-begotten son of God") is an apostolic constitution in the form of a papal bull promulgated by Pope Clement XI in 1713. It opened the final phase of the Jansenis ...

'' for which Fabroni was a major author, and which censured Jansenism. Besides these, there is an important collection dedicated to the Catholic Jesuit missions in China, works of medicine, physics, natural sciences, arithmetic and geometry.Comune of Pistoia, entry on Biblioteca Fabroniana.

References

{{Authority control Infrastructure completed in 1726 Fabroniana Baroque architecture in Tuscany 1726 establishments in Italy

History

Structure and Collection

See also

References