Biblioteca comunale dell'Archiginnasio

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Archiginnasio, Bologna, 2023 ©Wildlab per BW

BolognaLibraries

The birth of the Municipal Library dates back to 1801 for the work of the Rhine Department. This initially collected the book heritage of the religious congregations dissolved by the provisions of the Napoleonic period (1797-1798) and by the Kingdom of Italy (1866). First housed in the Convent of San Domenico, it was moved in 1838 to the Archiginnasio building. Over time, many donations and acquisitions enriched the library's heritage, which was increasingly oriented towards the humanities, paying particular attention to everything related to the civil, political and cultural life of Bologna and of its territory. Over the years the Archiginnasio has increasingly promoted itself as a research and conservation library, strengthening a vocation that was enhanced by the development in parallel of the People's Library, born as a section of the Archiginnasio in 1909 and that later became the Central Library of public reading. The Library also promotes numerous cultural initiatives, such as conference cycles, book presentations, symposiums, exhibitions; the publishing activity is also quite remarkable.