The Malatestiana Library (), also known as the Malatesta Novello Library, is a public library in the city of

Cesena Cesena (; rgn, Cisêna) is a city and '' comune'' in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, served by Autostrada A14, and located near the Apennine Mountains, about from the Adriatic Sea. The total population is 97,137. History Cesena was ...

in northern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Purpose-built from 1447 to 1452 and opened in 1454, and named after the local aristocrat

Malatesta Novello Domenico Malatesta, best known as Malatesta Novello (5 August 1418 – 20 November 1465) was an Italian condottiero, a member of the Malatesta family. Biography He was born at Brescia, the son of Pandolfo III Malatesta and Antonia da Barignano. ...

, it is significant for being the first civic library in Europe, i.e. belonging to the

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

rather than the church or a noble family, and open to the general public. The library was inscribed in UNESCO's

Memory of the World Register Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembere ...

in 2005.

History and influence

The building and creation of the library was commissioned by the Lord of Cesena,

. Construction was directed by Matteo Nuti from

Fano Fano is a town and '' comune'' of the province of Pesaro and Urbino in the Marche region of Italy. It is a beach resort southeast of Pesaro, located where the '' Via Flaminia'' reaches the Adriatic Sea. It is the third city in the region by ...

(a pupil of

Leon Battista Alberti Leon Battista Alberti (; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer; he epitomised the nature of those identified now as polymaths. H ...

) and lasted from 1447 to 1452. At Novello's direction, the books were owned by the commune of Cesena, not the monastery or the family. Because of this governing structure, the collection was not dispersed like many monastic libraries. In 2005

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

included the Library in the

Memory of the World Programme Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...

Facility

The Malatestiana Library is one of the very few libraries (another one is the Librije in Zutphen, Netherlands) in the world of the so-called humanistic-conventual type, which blends humanistic principles with architecture otherwise reserved for religious buildings, and has preserved its structure, fittings and codices since its opening more than 550 years ago. The main doorway was the work of sculptor

Agostino di Duccio Agostino di Duccio (1418 – ) was an early Renaissance Italian sculptor. Born in Florence, he worked in Prato with Donatello and Michelozzo, who influenced him greatly. In 1441, he was accused of stealing precious materials from a Florenti ...

(1418–1481). The walnut door at the main entrance dates back to 1454 and was carved by the artist Cristoforo from

San Giovanni in Persiceto San Giovanni in Persiceto (from 1912 to 1927: ''Persiceto''; Western Bolognese: ) is a town and '' comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Bologna, northern Italy. Located in the northern part of the Metropolitan City, bordering with the provin ...

. Inside, the library features geometric design, typical of the early Italian

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...

style. The

aula The Canadian Aviation Regulations define two types of ultralight aircraft: basic ultra-light aeroplane (BULA), and advanced ultra-light aeroplane (AULA). Definition Regulation of ultra-light aircraft in Canada is covered by the Canadian ...

has the layout of a

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its nam ...

(reflecting the importance of the library as a "temple of culture"), with three

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-typ ...

s divided by ten rows of white columns made from local stone; there are eleven

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a na ...

in each aisle, which are pole vaulted. The central nave is

barrel vault A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...

ed and ends with a rose under which is the gravestone of Malatesta Novello. The fittings are composed of 58 desks, with coat of arms at the sides. The light comes in through the 44

Venetian style Venetian Gothic is the particular form of Italian Gothic architecture typical of Venice, originating in local building requirements, with some influence from Byzantine architecture, and some from Islamic architecture, reflecting Venice's trading ...

windows, which were purpose designed to provide ideal lighting for reading.

Holdings

The library has over 400,000 books, including over 340

codices The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...

covering various fields such as religion,

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

classics, sciences and medicine, and about 3,200 manuscripts from the 16th century. The oldest manuscript in the library is a copy of

Isidore Isidore ( ; also spelled Isador, Isadore and Isidor) is an English and French masculine given name. The name is derived from the Greek name ''Isídōros'' (Ἰσίδωρος) and can literally be translated to "gift of Isis." The name has survived ...

's ''

Etymologiae ''Etymologiae'' (Latin for "The Etymologies"), also known as the ''Origines'' ("Origins") and usually abbreviated ''Orig.'', is an etymological encyclopedia compiled by Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636) towards the end of his life. Isidore was ...

''.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Public libraries in Italy Libraries in Cesena Memory of the World Register Buildings and structures in Cesena Education in Emilia-Romagna Buildings and structures completed in 1452