Libraries | Italy | Librariana
In Florence, Rome and beyond, these buildings are a feast not only for book lovers, but for art and architecture enthusiasts as well.
By DAVID LASKIN
June 13, 2017
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An early edition of Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” in the Angelica library.
Susan Wright for The New York Times
In the madness of late spring at San Marco Square in
Venice, amid the hordes pouring in from land and sea, hard by the
hissing espresso machines and sizzling panini presses of overpriced
cafes, I found the still point of the turning world.
I found it in the library.
It was 10 in the morning and I was standing, alone and enthralled, on the second floor balcony of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana.
Across the Piazzetta rose the Doge’s Palace. At my feet, tourist
insanity. At my back, an immense, hushed, empty reading room designed by
Jacopo Sansovino and decorated by Titian and Veronese.
Why go to the library in Italy
when all around you there is fantastic art, exalted architecture, deep
history and intense passionate people? Because, as I discovered in the
course of a rushed but illuminating week dashing from Venice to Rome,
Florence and Milan, the country’s historic libraries contain all of
those without the crowds. Read more...
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