Biblioteca Ambrosiana
Founded on September 7, 1607, and inaugurated on December 8, 1609, by Cardinal Federico Borromeo, the Biblioteca Ambrosiana was one of the first in the world to open its doors to anyone who could read and write. A place of dialogue between different cultures, born to be a shared heritage.
The heroic and immortal library
Galileo Galilei on the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, 1623
A temple of knowledge that preserves manuscripts and ancient treasures
It was conceived by its founder as a centre for study and culture. Through his intervention other institutions came to flourish alongside it, such as the Board of Fellows (Collegio dei Dottori, 1607), the Art Gallery (Pinacoteca, 1618) and the Academy of Drawing for teaching painting, sculpture and architecture (Accademia del Disegno, 1620).
The Library is one of the most important in the world. Its collections numbers more than a million printed volumes (including thousands of incunabula and books dating from the 16th century); nearly 40,000 manuscripts (including the celebrated Codex Atlanticus and some of the most important existing manuscripts) in Italian, Latin, Greek, Arabic, Syriac, Ethiopic (and much else); 12,000 drawings (among them works by Raphael, Pisanello, Leonardo and other renowned masters); 22,000 engravings; and other unique rarities (old maps, musical manuscripts, parchments and papyri).
Cardinal Federico gave the Library to a multicultural character, oriented towards dialogue, writing as he did that even books from cultures and faiths other than Christianity can “bring us many benefits and make us knowledgeable about many things that are both beautiful and very beneficial”.
The particular richness of the texts dealing with philosophy, Christian theology and other religions (above all Islam and Judaism), as well as a wide range of ancient and modern literature makes the Ambrosiana a veritable treasure chest in which one can search for Truth, which has always charmed the human soul, in all regions and at all times.
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