Biblioteca Queriniana
| Biblioteca civica Queriniana | |
|---|---|
 Facade of the Biblioteca Civica
|
|
| founding | 1746 |
| Duration | about 500,000 |
| place |
Brescia 
|
| Visitor address | Via G. Mazzini 1, 25121 Brescia (BS) |
| ISIL | IT-BS0026 (Biblioteca civica Queriniana) |
| operator | Comune di Brescia |
| Website | queriniana.comune.brescia.it |
The Biblioteca Queriniana is the most important and prestigious library in the city of Brescia .
history
The library takes its name from Bishop Angelo Maria Querini , who had it built between 1746 and 1749 in the complex of the Bishop's Palace of Brescia and who gave it around 1,500 volumes from his private collection. The project was entrusted to the architect Giovanni Battista Marchetti .
In 1750 the library was opened to the public and in 1797 it was declared the National Library of the Cisalpine Republic . It later received holdings from monasteries that were closed during the Napoleonic period.
In the 20th century, numerous private libraries were incorporated from bequests, including those of Martinengo da Barco, Lechi, Zanardelli, Di Rosa, Alessandro Sina and Paolo Guerrini.
On July 13, 1944, the building was damaged after a bombardment. It has recently been restructured to better adapt it to the new tasks of a modern library. The collections are kept in closed storage rooms that are not accessible to the public and contain around 11 km of shelves.
The Biblioteca Queriniana is legally responsible for depositing the third copy of every publication printed or published in the Province of Brescia .
The library has a historical section devoted to the Risorgimento , an artistic section and a section devoted to local studies.
To date, the inventory comprises more than 500,000 works that can be viewed via OPAC .
Since 2001 there has also been a media library in the branch near the Broletto .
The building
The library was built by the architect Giovanni Battista Marchetti with the help of his son Antonio and consists of a large rectangular hall with two reading rooms and two other rooms attached. The hall and the small rooms are accessed by a marble staircase that leads to the atrium, which was frescoed in the 18th century by Pietro Scotti and Enrico Albrizzi and where you can admire the marble bust of Cardinal Querini by the sculptor Antonio Callegari. Callegari, in collaboration with Antonio Ferretti, also created the statues of the Muses that are placed outdoors on the building.
literature
- Lorenzo Apolli: Un palagio magnifico alle muse bresciane eretto . Massetti Rodella, Roccafranca 2009, ISBN 978-88-8486-392-8 (Italian).
Web links
- Biblioteca Queriniana ( it ) Anagrafe delle biblioteche italiane, Istituto centrale per il catalogo unico.
- OPAC Querinana ( it ) catalogoqueriniana.comune.brescia.it.