The Biblioteca Ambrosiana is a historic library in Milan, Italy, also housing the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, the Ambrosian art gallery. Named after

Ambrose Ambrose of Milan ( la, Aurelius Ambrosius; ), venerated as Saint Ambrose, ; lmo, Sant Ambroeus . was a theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397. He expressed himself prominently as a public figure, fiercely promo ...

, the patron saint of Milan, it was founded in 1609 by Cardinal Federico Borromeo, whose agents scoured Western Europe and even Greece and

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

for books and manuscripts. Some major acquisitions of complete libraries were the manuscripts of the Benedictine

monastery of Bobbio Bobbio Abbey (Italian: ''Abbazia di San Colombano'') is a monastery founded by Irish Saint Columbanus in 614, around which later grew up the town of Bobbio, in the province of Piacenza, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. It is dedicated to Saint Columbanus. ...

(1606) and the library of the Paduan

Vincenzo Pinelli Gian Vincenzo Pinelli (1535 – 31 August 1601) was an Italian humanist, born in Naples and known as a savant and a mentor of Galileo. His literary correspondence put him at the center of a European network of ''virtuosi''. He was also a not ...

, whose more than 800 manuscripts filled 70 cases when they were sent to Milan and included the famous '' Iliad'', the '' Ilias Picta''.

History

Vinci, Leonardo da - Crossbow sketch - 1500

During Cardinal Borromeo's sojourns in Rome, 1585–95 and 1597–1601, he envisioned developing this library in Milan as one open to scholars and that would serve as a bulwark of Catholic scholarship in the service of the

Counter-Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also called the Catholic Reformation () or the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. It began with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) a ...

against the treatises issuing from Protestant presses. To house the cardinal's 15,000 manuscripts and twice that many printed books, construction began in 1603 under designs and direction of Lelio Buzzi and Francesco Maria Richini. When its first reading room, the ''Sala Fredericiana'', opened to the public on 8 December 1609 it was one of the earliest

public libraries A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also civil servants. There are five fundamenta ...

. One innovation was that its books were housed in cases ranged along the walls, rather than chained to reading tables, the latter a medieval practice seen still today in the

Laurentian Library 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 ...

of Florence. A printing press was attached to the library, and a school for instruction in the classical languages. Constant acquisitions, soon augmented by bequests, required enlargement of the space. Borromeo intended an academy (which opened in 1625) and a collection of pictures, for which a new building was initiated in 1611–18 to house the Cardinal's paintings and drawings, the nucleus of the Pinacoteca. Cardinal Borromeo gave his collection of paintings and drawings to the library, too. Shortly after the cardinal's death, his library acquired twelve manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci, including the '' Codex Atlanticus''. The library now contains some 12,000 drawings by European artists, from the 14th through the 19th centuries, which have come from the collections of a wide range of patrons and artists, academicians, collectors, art dealers, and architects. Prized manuscripts, including the Leonardo codices, were requisitioned by the French during the Napoleonic occupation, and only partly returned after 1815. Leonardo da Vinci - Portrait of a Musician - Pinacoteca Ambrosiana

Leonardo da Vinci - Portrait of a Musician - Pinacoteca Ambrosiana

On 15 October 1816 the Romantic poet Lord Byron visited the library. He was delighted by the letters between

Lucrezia Borgia Lucrezia Borgia (; ca-valencia, Lucrècia Borja, links=no ; 18 April 1480 – 24 June 1519) was a Spanish-Italian noblewoman of the House of Borgia who was the daughter of Pope Alexander VI and Vannozza dei Cattanei. She reigned as the Govern ...

and

Pietro Bembo Pietro Bembo, ( la, Petrus Bembus; 20 May 1470 – 18 January 1547) was an Italian scholar, poet, and literary theorist who also was a member of the Knights Hospitaller, and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. As an intellectual of the It ...

("The prettiest love letters in the world"''Ian Thompson, review''
''The Spectator'', 25 June 2005, of ''Viragos on the march'' by Gaia Servadio. I. B. Tauris, .
Pietro Bembo: A Renaissance Courtier Who Had His Cake and Ate It Too
', Ed Quattrocchi, ''Caxtonian: Journal of the Caxton Club of Chicago'', Volume XIII, Nº. 10, October 2005.) and claimed to have managed to steal a lock of her hair ("the prettiest and fairest imaginable.") held on display.

Byron
' by John Nichol.Letter to Augusta Leigh, Milan, 15 October 1816. ''Lord Byron's Letters and Journals''
Chapter 5: Separation and Exile
. The novelist Mary Shelley visited the library on 14 September 1840 but was disappointed by the tight security occasioned by the recent attempted theft of "some of the relics of Petrarch" housed there. Among the 30,000 manuscripts, which range from Greek and Latin to Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic,Oscar Löfgren and Renato Traini, ''Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana'', vol. I (1975), ii (1981) onwards. Ethiopian, Turkish and Persian, is the Muratorian fragment, of ''ca'' 170 A.D., the earliest example of a Biblical canon and an original copy of '' De divina proportione'' by

Luca Pacioli Fra Luca Bartolomeo de Pacioli (sometimes ''Paccioli'' or ''Paciolo''; 1447 – 19 June 1517) was an Italian mathematician, Franciscan friar, collaborator with Leonardo da Vinci, and an early contributor to the field now known as accounting ...

. Among Christian and Islamic Arabic manuscripts are treatises on medicine, a unique 11th-century diwan of poets, and the oldest copy of the '' Kitab Sibawahaihi''. The library has a college of Doctors, similar to the scriptors of the Vatican Library. Among prominent figures have been

Giuseppe Ripamonti Giuseppe Ripamonti (July 1573 – 11 August 1643) was an Italian Catholic priest and historian. Ripamonti was a prolific writer, to the extent that he can be considered as the most important Milanese writer of the first half of the seventeenth c ...

, Ludovico Antonio Muratori, Giuseppe Antonio Sassi, Cardinal Angelo Mai and, at the beginning of the 20th century,

Antonio Maria Ceriani Antonio Maria Ceriani (May 2, 1828 – March 2, 1907) was an Italian prelate, Syriacist, and scholar. Ceriani was born at Uboldo, in Lombardy. He was ordained a priest for his home diocese of Milan in 1852 and the same year was appointed keep ...

Achille Ratti Pope Pius XI ( it, Pio XI), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939), was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to his death in February 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City fro ...

(on 8 November 1888,, with '' imprimatur'' of Milan Curia (in person of friar Castiglioni) on 9 August 1938, and of cardinal Schuster the future Pope Pius XI, and

Giovanni Mercati Giovanni Mercati (17 December 1866 – 23 August 1957) was an Italian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as archivist of the Vatican Secret Archives and librarian of the Vatican Library from 1936 until his death, and was eleva ...

. Ratti wrote a new edition of the ''Acta Ecclesiae Mediolanensis'' ("Acts of the Church of Milan"), Latin work firstly published by the cardinal Federico Borromeo in

1582 1582 ( MDLXXXII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) in the Julian calendar, and a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Proleptic Gregorian calendar. This year saw the be ...

. The building was damaged in World War II, with the loss of the archives of opera libretti of

La Scala La Scala (, , ; abbreviation in Italian of the official name ) is a famous opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the ' (New Royal-Ducal Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performan ...

, but was restored in 1952 and underwent major restorations in 1990–97. Artwork at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana includes Leonardo da Vinci's " Portrait of a Musician", Caravaggio's " Basket of Fruit", Bramantino's '' Adoration of the Christ Child'' and Raphael's cartoon of " The School of Athens".

Some manuscripts

* Uncial 0135 — fragments of the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke *

Codex Ambrosianus 435 ''On the Soul'' (Greek: , ''Peri Psychēs''; Latin: ''De Anima'') is a major treatise written by Aristotle c. 350 BC. His discussion centres on the kinds of souls possessed by different kinds of living things, distinguished by their different op ...

, Ambrosianus 837 — treatise '' On the Soul'' of Aristotle * Minuscule manuscripts of New Testament:

343 __NOTOC__ Year 343 ( CCCXLIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Memmius and Romulus (or, less frequently, year 1096 ' ...

344 Year 344 (Roman numerals, CCCXLIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Leontius and Bonosus (or, less frequently, year 1097 ...

345 The Year 345 ( CCCXLV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Amantius and Albinus (or, less frequently, year 1098 ''Ab urbe ...

346 Year 346 ( CCCXLVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Constantius and Claudius (or, less frequently, year 109 ...

347 Year 347 (Roman numerals, CCCXLVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rufinus and Eusebius (or, less frequently, year 1 ...

348 Year 348 ( CCCXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Philippus and Salia (or, less frequently, year 1101 ''Ab urbe cond ...

349 __NOTOC__ Year 349 ( CCCXLIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Limenius and Catullinus (or, less frequently, year 1102 ...

350 __NOTOC__ Year 350 (Roman numerals, CCCL) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sergius and Nigrinianus (or, less frequentl ...

351 __NOTOC__ Year 351 ( CCCLI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Magnentius and Gaiso (or, less frequently, year 1104 ''A ...

352 Year 352 (Roman numerals, CCCLII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Decentius and Paulus (or, less frequently, year 110 ...

353 __NOTOC__ Year 353 ( CCCLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Magnentius and Decentius (or, less frequently, year 110 ...

, 614,

615 __NOTOC__ Year 615 ( DCXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 615 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era ...

* Lectionaries ℓ ''102'', ℓ ''103'', ℓ ''104'', ℓ ''105'', ℓ ''106'', ℓ ''284'', ℓ ''285'', ℓ ''286'', ℓ ''287'', ℓ ''288'', ℓ ''289'', ℓ ''290''. * Codices Ambrosiani, containing the Gothic language

Gallery

References

External links

Virtual tour of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana
provided by

Google Arts & Culture Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world. It utilizes high-resolution image technol ...

* {{Authority control 1609 establishments in Italy Archives in Italy Libraries in Milan Culture in Milan Tourist attractions in Milan Education in Milan Libraries established in 1609 Collections of museums in Italy Art museums and galleries in Milan

History

Some manuscripts

Gallery

References

Further reading

External links