Biblioteca Riccardiana

The Biblioteca Riccardiana is a public library in Florence. It is located in Palazzo Medici Riccardi. The library was founded in 1600 as a private library of Riccardo Romolo Riccardi and is since 1815 a public library. Current Director since 1996 Giovanna Lazzi that manages the manuscript department.

History

End of the 17th century, the collection of Francesco Riccardi was extended by the dowry of his wife Cassandra Capponi. Her father Vincenzio Capponi (1605-1688), an homme de lettres and scholar from the circle of Galileo Galilei, had bequeathed her a large part of his extensive library. A resulting user directory of the library shows that the collection was available in 1737 researchers and scholars. In the 18th century the family Riccardi was increasingly in financial difficulties, which they tried to counter by sale of the library. Thus, the collection does not leave Florence, it was taken over in 1813 by the city and nationalized two years later. Since then it has continued to the public.

The Biblioteca Riccardiana hosts a number of valuable manuscripts, some Minuskelhandschriften the New Testament. 1756 created Giovanni Lami ( 1697-1770 ) a catalog of the manuscripts. The structure belongs to the arithmetic book of Filippo Calandri ( Ricc. 2669 ), of which the library also has a copy of the incunabula, which was printed in 1491 in Florence.