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The Marucelliana Library or Biblioteca Marucelliana, is a public library, founded by the mid-18th century, and located on Via Camillo Cavour # 43, in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
, 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.
History
The library was opened to the public on September 18, 1752. It was willed by Abbot
Francesco Marucelli, (died in Rome, 1703), as a library of general knowledge open to a wide audience, as indicated by the inscription on the facade: "Marucellorum Bibliotheca publicae maxime pauperum utilitati". The core of the collection derives from the library of Abbot Francesco.
Funded by the income of various abbeys in Tuscany, Francesco lived in Rome, where he was sometimes consulted as an expert in the Canon Law. His only publication, was a bibliographic compendium in fifteen volumes, ''Mare Magnum'', of the contents of his library and or his acquaintance.
The building was commissioned by the grandson of the founder,
Alessandro Marucelli (died 1751). Also a bibliophile himself, Alessandro expanded the entries in ''Mare Magnum'' to 24 volumes, and fulfilled his grandfather's will by selecting the site for the library on Via Condotti. He also donated his own books and appointed
Angelo Maria Bandini
Angelo Maria Bandini (25 September 1726 – 1803) was an Italian author and librarian born in Florence.
Biography
Orphan since infancy, Angelo Maria was supported by his uncle, Giuseppe Bandini, a lawyer of some note. He was initially educated a ...
as first librarian, a post he held for the fifty years. Alessandro died before the construction was complete. The original collection numbered about 6000 manuscripts, in all disciplines.
Bandini established the first alphabetic catalogues of the works, by author and by title. ''Mare Magnum'' was expanded to 111 volumes. Bandini concurrently served as the librarian for the
Biblioteca Laurenziana
The Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana or BML) is a historic library in Florence, Italy, containing more than 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books. Built in a cloister of the Medicean Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze ...
in Florence. In 1776, the suppression of the
Jesuits
The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
, brought their large collections into the library, consisting of more than one hundred and fifty works, including a dozen manuscripts. In 1783, Bandini brought into the collection the drawings and prints of
Francesco di Ruberto, also those of the Marucelli family. He purchased the manuscript collection of
Anton Francesco Gori, and obtained the library of the naturalist
Antonio Cocchi
Antonio Cocchi (3 August 1695 – 1 January 1758) was an Italian physician, naturalist and writer. He was best known for his work on anatomy.
Biography
Cocchi was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1736, his candidature citation describi ...
and a portion of the library of the antiquarian
Filippo Stosch.
The second librarian,
Francesco Del Furia (1777-1856), held the post for the next fifty years. In the second half of the nineteenth century and the first of the next century by collections from the Martelli and Bonamici families and the correspondence of Nencioni, as well as many other documents and manuscripts. The 19th century suppressions of convents also enlarged their collections, including most of their sixteenth-century
incunabula
In the history of printing, an incunable or incunabulum (plural incunables or incunabula, respectively), is a book, pamphlet, or broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. Incunabula were pro ...
.
The late nineteenth-century English novelist
George Gissing
George Robert Gissing (; 22 November 1857 – 28 December 1903) was an English novelist, who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. His best-known works have reappeared in modern editions. They include ''The Nether World'' (1889), ''New Grub ...
used the library on a number of occasions in early January 1889.
In 1910, a law demanded that nearly all printed public works from Florence and nearby provinces also be deposited in the Marucelliana.
Art and architecture
The edifice was built to house the library. A public contest to create the design had two main submissions, one by the Roman architect
Alessandro Dori, also called
Alessandro Marucelli, and by the Florentine architect
Giovanni Filippo Ciocchi Giovanni may refer to:
* Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname
* Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data
* '' Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend ...
. Dori had chosen Via Cavour as a main entrance, while Ciocchi chose a side street. A committee, which had access to the compelling wooden model, ultimately chose the less costly Dori model.
Construction (1747–1751) was directed by Dori; and by the late eighteenth century, space appeared tight. Currently, the complex has expanded beyond the original premises, into the adjacent Palaces Della Stufa and Pegna, and the ground floor of the
Palazzo Fenzi Dardinelli.
The wooden model of the Library is on display, 104 cm high, 55 wide and 135 long. The model is detailed complete with the interior plans, including the Reading Room, as well as that of the staircase of access.
The main reading room has a bust of ''Francesco Marucelli'' (1749) by
Pietro Bracci
Pietro Bracci (1700–1773) was an Italian sculptor working in the Late Baroque manner.
Biography
He was born in Rome and became a student of Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari and Camillo Rusconi. His most familiar works are the colossal ''Oceanus' ...
and a plaster portrait of
Giacomo Leopardi
Count Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi (, ; 29 June 1798 – 14 June 1837) was an Italian philosopher, poet, essayist, and philologist. He is considered the greatest Italian poet of the nineteenth century and one of ...
(1885) by
Adriano Cecioni
Adriano Cecioni (July 26, 1836May 23, 1886) was an Italian artist, caricaturist, and critic associated with the Macchiaioli group.
Biography
He was born in Florence into a middle-class family belonging to the local gentry. He began his artistic ...
. A portrait of Francesco Marucelli has been attributed to
Davide Canoniche.
At the base of the grand staircase there is a marble statue of ''Minerva'', donated to the library by Giovanni Filippo Marucelli, bailiff of Malta.
Marucelliana library
official website, history.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marucelliana
Infrastructure completed in 1751
Libraries in Florence
Neoclassical architecture in Florence
1751 establishments in Europe