The Biblioteca Roncioniana is a public library, founded in 1726, and located on Piazza San Francesco #27 in the historic center of

Prato Prato ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Italy, the capital of the Province of Prato. The city lies in the north east of Tuscany, at the foot of Monte Retaia, elevation , the last peak in the Calvana chain. With more than 200,000 i ...

, region of Tuscany, Italy. The library stands across the park from the church of San Francesco. Prato, entrata biblioteca roncioniana

History

The library was founded and endowed by the will of the aristocrat Marco di Emilio Roncioni (1600 - 1677). The library was provisionally open in 1722, but only since 1766 has it been hosted in a portion of the Palazzo Roncioni, located in the historic center of Prato. The palace was built 1751-1766 likely on the original design by Antonio Saller, but modified later by Francesco Arrighi and

Stefano di Rigo Stefano is the Italian form of the masculine given name Στέφανος (Stefanos, Stephen). The name is of Greek origin, Στέφανος, meaning a person who made a significant achievement and has been crowned. In Orthodox Christianity the ac ...

, who brought it to completion. The entrance atrium has a 15th-century terracotta images of the Arcangel Raphael and Tobias by the studio of Andrea della Robbia. The entrance has frescoed panels with trompe-l'œil architecture. The ceiling of main reading room was frescoed (1789) by

Luigi Catani Luigi Catani (7 November 1762 – 17 December 1840) is an Italians, Italian painter of frescoes during the Neoclassicism, neoclassical period, active in Tuscany. Biography He was born in Prato and died in Florence. He was a pupil of Pietro Benve ...

and depicts ''Sloth and Wisdom ''(images after works of

Pietro da Cortona Pietro da Cortona (; 1 November 1596 or 159716 May 1669) was an Italian Baroque painter and architect. Along with his contemporaries and rivals Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, he was one of the key figures in the emergence of Roman ...

). On the wall are two mappamondi (world maps) based on the 16th century work of Mercator (by Gerard Kremer, 1512–1594). To the original donation of Roncioni, additional collections have been added over the centuries, including in 1727, the collections of Bernardino Piazzini and by the canon Giovan Battista Casotti in 1737. In the 19th century, the library acquired the collection of the lawyer Giovacchino Benini and Adele Guerrazzi Mazzoni, and additionally it acquired some of the libraries from suppressed monasteries in Prato. Other donations were provided by Cesare Guasti, monsignor Ferdinando Baldanzi, monsignor Giovacchino Limberti, monsignor Giovanni Pierallini, canon Luigi Sacchi, and canon Giovacchino Pelagatti. In 2022, the collection included 39 books from the 15th-century; 1638 volumes from the 16th-century; 2268 volumes from the 17th-century, and 50,527 volumes and journasl from subsequent periods.Roncioniana official website

References

{{coord, 43.879718, 11.096251, type:landmark_region:IT, display=title Buildings and structures completed in 1766 Roncioniana 1677 establishments in Italy Libraries established in 1722 Buildings and structures in Prato