Mozzi-Borgetti Library

Biblioteca Mozzi Borgetti - Musei Macerata

The library

La sala consultazione della Biblioteca Mozzi Borgetti - Musei Macerata

It is considered one of the major libraries of the Marches, thanks to the large collection of about 400,000 pieces including incunabula, manuscripts, maps, statutes and legal funds and the archive of the local Academy of the Chains.

The Library is located in the former Jesuit College, a complex erected in the area previously occupied by the Hospice of the Knights of Jerusalem and subjected to architectural alterations and extensions starting in 1681. Due to the temporary suppression of the Jesuit Order in 1773 , the Municipality of Macerata, through the interest of fellow citizens Cardinal Mario Compagnoni Marefoschi, Monsignor Guglielmo Pallotta and Ferdinando Palmucci, obtained the building from the Vatican to accommodate the university and to open the library for public use. After substantial restorations to the structure, the library officially opened on March 31, 1787, mainly following the donations, generosity and care of the Mozzi brothers, Giuseppe and Bartolomeo.

Thanks to the dedication of the Dominican father Tommaso Maria Borgetti, the Borgetti Library, autonomous until 1855, was installed in the same building from 1834. The two libraries, Mozziana and Borgettiana, were then unified in 1855 and gave life to the Mozzi Borgetti Library.

History of the library

I volumi storici della biblioteca Mozzi Borgetti - Musei Macerata

The original collection of 5000 volumes constituted by the Jesuit library dates back to 1773 and contains the books of the suppressed religious corporations, the texts of the “Public Library of the Municipality”, the precious bequests of Giuseppe and Bartolomeo Mozzi (1789), of the Dominican father Tommaso Maria Borgetti who donated 9,176 volumes (1833), by the art historian Amico Ricci and then in the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries of other donations, such as that of the Castiglioni library (formerly of Pius VIII) with 20,000 volumes.

The decorative-pictorial interventions of the rooms of the ancient rooms are made by the artists Serafino Scarponi and Costanzo Alberti. The latter was responsible for the medallions on the walls with the portraits of the meritorious emperors by Helvia Ricina. In the Gallery of Mirrors, the artists Domenico Marzapani and Domenico Cervini create a narrative plot of grotesque and Pompeian stylistic features, with the inclusion of portraits of illustrious philosophers and scientists. Similar paintings decorate other rooms of the library, while the vault of the former farmers’ oratory bears the signature of Giuseppe Mattei. The presence of the carving works by Giuseppe Ciferri and Bernardino Consalvi and the valuable shelving created by Domenico Antonio Pianesi are noteworthy. The squares of the ceilings and the neoclassical style of the rooms are due to the artistic direction of the Macerata painter Vincenzo Martini.

Inside the vast building, next to the library, the Universal Museum of Macerata, the Teatro and the Reading Cabinet of the Casino Society (1809 – 1901), the Piceno Museum designed in 1819 by Michele Santarelli have been housed, albeit for short periods. and the Museum of the Risorgimento, founded in 1905 by Giovanni and Domenico Spadoni. It also housed the picture gallery set up in 1860 thanks to the Bonfigli donation, the civic collections that flowed into the rooms of the Pinacoteca in 1927 and most recently the Museum of the carriage in 1962.

Timetables

Monday through Friday:
9:00 – 18:30

Information for the guided tour:
From Monday to Friday at 10.00, 12.00, 15.30 and 17.30 and on Saturdays only at 10.00 and 12.00 it is possible to take advantage of the free guided tour of the Library upon reservation. A maximum of 10 people are allowed per shift.
Visitors can book by calling 0733.256360

Address
piazza Vittorio Veneto 2, Macerata (MC)

Contacts
Tel. 0733 256360
Email biblioteca@comune.macerata.it

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