The Marciana Library or Library of Saint Mark is a public library in Venice, Italy. It is one of the earliest surviving public libraries and repositories for manuscripts in Italy and holds one the world’s most significant collections of classical texts. The library was founded in 1468 when the humanist scholar Cardinal Bessarion, bishop of Tusculum and titular Latin patriarch of Constantinople, donated his collection of Greek and Latin manuscripts to the Republic of Venice. The original library building is located in Saint Mark’s Square, Venice’s former governmental centre. Constructed between 1537 and 1588, it is considered the masterpiece of the architect Jacopo Sansovino and a key work in Venetian Renaissance architecture.
About Biblioteca Marciana in brief
The Marciana Library or Library of Saint Mark is a public library in Venice, Italy. It is one of the earliest surviving public libraries and repositories for manuscripts in Italy and holds one the world’s most significant collections of classical texts. The library was founded in 1468 when the humanist scholar Cardinal Bessarion, bishop of Tusculum and titular Latin patriarch of Constantinople, donated his collection of Greek and Latin manuscripts to the Republic of Venice. The original library building is located in Saint Mark’s Square, Venice’s former governmental centre, with its long façade facing the Doge’s Palace. Constructed between 1537 and 1588, it is considered the masterpiece of the architect Jacopo Sansovino and a key work in Venetian Renaissance architecture. Also significant for its art, the library holds many works by the great painters of sixteenth-century Venice, making it a comprehensive monument toVenetian Mannerism. Today, the historical building is customarily referred to as the ‘Libreria sansoviniana’ and is largely a museum. Since 1904 the library offices, the reading rooms, and most of the collection have been housed in the adjoining Zecca, the former mint of the Republicof Venice. The library is now formally known as the Biblioteca nazionale Marciana. It is the only official institution established by the Venice government that survives and continues to function and is now the only public library of its kind in the world. It was built during the period of recovery as part of a vast programme of urban renewal aimed at glorifying the republic through architecture and affirming its international prestige as a centre of wisdom and learning.
The choice of Venice was primarily due to the city’s large community of Greek refugees and its historical ties to the Byzantine Empire. In 1468, the Byzantine humanist and Scholar Cardinal BESSarion donated his. collection of 482 Greek and 264 Latin codices to theRepublic of Venice, stipulating that a. public library be established to ensure their conservation for future generations and availability for scholars. The cardinal’s aim was to preserve the writings of the classical Greek authors and the literature of Byzantium after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and its devastation by the Turks. In Venice, Petrarch’s personal collection of manuscripts, donated to the republic in 1362, was dispersed at the time of his death. In 1438, the newly ordained bishop of Nicaea arrived with the Byzantine delegation to the Council of Ferr-Florence, where he was admitted into the second seat of the aristocracy. On 20 December 1461, during the second stay, he was briefly brought briefly to Venice to meet Pope Pius II. His travels as envoy to Germany for the Pope brought him briefly into the city again in 1460 and 1463, when he was invited to stay with the Venetians for a visit to the Great Council of the Pope. He was later invited back to Venice for a second stay in 1464.
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