Entrance to the Ambrosian Library.

The Biblioteca Ambrosiana is a historical library in Milan, also housing the the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana art gallery. Named after Ambrose, the patron saint of Milan, it was founded by Cardinal Federico Borromeo (1564-1631), whose agents scoured Western Europe and even Greece and Syria for books and manuscripts. Some major acquisitions of complete libraries were the manuscripts of the Benedictine monastery of Bobbio (1606) and the library of the Paduan Vincenzo Pinelli, whose more than 800 manuscripts filled 70 cases when they were sent to Milan and included the famous illuminated Iliad, the Ilia Picta. Biblioteca Ambrosiana, 2004-06-10. ... Biblioteca Ambrosiana, 2004-06-10. ... Julio Pérez Ferrero Library - Cúcuta, Colombia A modern-style library in Chambéry A library is a collection of information, sources, resources and services, organized for use, and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual. ... For other uses, see Milan (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Ambrose (disambiguation). ... Federico Borromeo (born August 16, 1564; died September 22, 1631) was cardinal and archbishop of Milan and the cousin of Saint Charles Borromeo. ... Events March 27 — Naples bans kissing in public under the penalty of death June 22 — Fort Caroline, the first French attempt at colonizing the New World September 10 — The Battle of Kawanakajima Ottoman Turks invade Malta Modern pencil becomes common in England Conquistadors crossed the Pacific Spanish founded a colony... // Events February 5 - Roger Williams emigrates to Boston. ... Stone arch bridge over the Trebbia river Bobbio is a city in the Piacenza province of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. ... Gian Vincenzo Pinelli (1535 – 1601) was an Italian humanist from Padua, a savant whose collection of manuscripts, when it was purchased from his estate in 1608 for the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, filled 70 cases. ... title page of the Rihel edition of ca. ...

History

During Cardinal Borromeo's sojourns in Rome, 1585–95 and 1597–1601, he envisioned developing this library in Milan as one open to scholars and that would serve as a bulwark of Catholic scholarship against the treatises issuing from Protestant presses. To house the cardinal's 15,000 manuscripts and twice that many printed books, Construction began in 1603 under designs and direction of Lelio Buzzi and Francesco Maria Richini. When its first reading room, the Sala Fredericiana, opened to the public, December 8, 1609, it was, after the Bodleian Library in Oxford, the second public library in Europe. One innovation was that its books were housed in cases ranged along the walls, rather than chained to reading tables, a practice seen still today in the Laurentian Library of Florence. A printing press was attached to the library, and a school for instruction in the classical languages. Year 1603 (MDCIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... The inner court of Palazzo Brera in Milan. ... is the 342nd day of the year (343rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... // Events April 4 – King of Spain signs an edit of expulsion of all moriscos from Spain April 9 – Spain recognizes Dutch independence May 23 - Official ratification of the Second Charter of Virginia. ... Entrance to the Library, with the coats-of-arms of several Oxford colleges The Bodleian Library, the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in England is second in size only to the British Library. ... It has been suggested that Biblioteca Mediceo Lauenziana be merged into this article or section. ... Florence (Italian: ) is the capital city of the region of Tuscany, Italy. ... The printing press is a mechanical device for printing many copies of a text on rectangular sheets of paper. ...

Constant acquisitions, soon augmented by bequests, required enlargement of the space. Borromeo intended an academy (which opened in 1625) and a collection of pictures, for which a new building was initiated in 1611–18 to house the Cardinal's paintings and drawings, the nucleus of the Pinacoteca. Raphaels fresco The School of Athens An academy is an institution of higher learning, research, or honorary membership. ...

Cardinal Borromeo gave his collection of paintings and drawings to the library too. Shortly after the cardinal's death his library acquired twelve manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci, including the Codex Atlanticus. There are now some 12,000 drawings by European artists, from the 14th through the 19th centuries, which have come from the collections of a wide range of patrons and artists, academicians, collectors, art dealers, and architects. Prized manuscripts, including the Leonardo codices, were requisitioned by the French during the Napoleonic occupation, and only partly returned after 1815. “Da Vinci” redirects here. ...

Among the manuscripts is the Muratorian fragment, of ca 170 A.D., the earliest example of a Biblical canon. Among Christians, the Muratorian fragment is known as a copy of perhaps the oldest known list of New Testament books that were accepted as canonical by the churches known to its anonymous compiler. ... A biblical canon is a list of Biblical books which establishes the set of books which are considered to be authoritative as scripture by a particular Jewish or Christian community. ...

The Library has a college of Doctors, similar to the scriptors of the Vatican Library. Among prominent figures have been Giuseppe Ripamonti, Ludovico Antonio Muratori, Giuseppe Antonio Sassi, Cardinal Angelo Mai and, at the beginning of the 20th century, Antonio Maria Ceriani, Achille Ratti, the future Pope Pius XI, and Giovanni Mercati. Ludovico Antonio Muratori (1672 - 1750) was an Italian historian, notable as a leading scholar of his age, and for his discovery of the Muratorian fragment, the earliest known list of New Testament books. ... Angelo Mai (March 7, 1782 - September 8, 1854), Italian cardinal and philologist, was born of humble parents at Schilpario in the province of Bergamo, Lombardy. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... Antonio Maria Ceriani was born at Uboldo, in the province of Varese in Italy on May 2, 1828. ... Pius XI (born Achille Ratti May 31, 1857 _ Rome, February 10, 1939) was Pope from February 6, 1922 until February 10, 1939. ... Pius XI (born Achille Ratti May 31, 1857 - Rome, February 10, 1939) was Pope from February 6, 1922 until February 10, 1939. ...

The building was damaged in World War II, with the loss of the archives of opera libretti of La Scala, but was restored in 1952 and underwent major restorations in 1990–97. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... The Teatro alla Scala in Milan, by night. ...

External links

• Biblioteca Ambrosiana web-site
• The Ambrosian Library @ the Catholic Encyclopedia