St Mark’s Library (Marciana):
The largest library in Venice, the National Library, boasts a collection that includes, in addition to one million printed publications, some 13,000 manuscript documents and more than 24,000 books from the early 16th century.
“The library was given a generous gift of 750 manuscripts by the Byzantine humanist, teacher and collector Cardinal Bessarion as seed money (in the sense of a book collection) and one of the jewels of the current collection. It is one of the oldest collections of manuscripts in the country open to public inspection.
The library has since received similar gifts from wealthy Venetian families.
Today, the library has one of the largest collections of classical texts in the world.
The current beautiful Renaissance building, heavily decorated with arches, columns and sculptures, was built later than the main collection. It was begun in 1537 in the San Marco neighbourhood. The author of the project was Jacopo Sansovino, but a few decades later the building was completed by the architect Vincenzo Scamozzi.
At the same time as the library, the neighbouring mint (“Zecca”) was built to Sansovino’s design, and its building in 1904 was also given to the library. The first 16 arcades of the library were built between 1537 and 1553, and the frescoes and frescoes were created in the same building, and work on the frescoes and other decorative elements continued until 1560. Sansovino died in 1570, and Scamozzi did not begin to complete the library until 1588, adding five more arcades to the structure. Not only the exterior of the library is remarkable, but also its interiors. They were decorated by some of the most distinguished craftsmen of the period, including Andrea Meldolla, Paolo of Verona, and Francesco Salviati.
Like the British Library and the Library of Congress in the United States later, the Marcian Library was greatly enriched by a 1603 law that ordered a copy of any book printed in Venice to be sent here. It is believed to have been the first such law passed in the world.
The library’s real treasures include 13 volumes with hand-coloured anatomical illustrations, 216 manuscripts, including the codices of the Mantuan Gonzaga family, a collection of 340 manuscripts, including the will of Marco Polo, as well as unique sheet music from Francesco Cavalli’s operas and Domenico Scarlatti’s sonatas.
Open all days except Sunday, 24 December, 1 January
