5/5 Asiyah Noemi K. 3 years ago on Google • 404 reviews
It
is
a
great
pleasure
to
stand
on
the
Piazzetta
and
observe
this
beautiful
building,
the
Biblioteca
Marciana.
Its
history
and
significance
is
extremely
interesting,
and
its
interior
is
breathtaking.
The
interior
is
beautifully
decorated,
and
richly
decorated
with
frescoes
and
paintings
by
artists
like
Tintoretto
and
Domenico
Molin,
its
ceiling,
featuring
Titian’s
allegorical
painting,
Sapienza,
is
widely
considered
the
room’s
most
important
decorative
element.
National
Library
of
St.
Mark
is
a
library
and
Renaissance
building,
one
of
the
oldest
public
libraries
in
the
country
and
one
of
the
largest
collections
of
classical
texts
in
the
world.
The
library
was
named
after
St.
Mark,
patron
saint
of
Venice.
The
Marciana
Library
stands
as
a
symbol
of
the
city’s
wealth
and
its
long
tradition
of
civic
investment
in
intellectual
and
artistic
pursuits.
The
building’s
construction
began
in
1537
and
was
completed
over
the
next
50
years.
The
library,
designed
by
Jacopo
Sansovino,
he
is
completed
16
of
the
façade’s
21
arcaded
bays
before
his
death
in
1570.
Eighteen
years
later,
Vincenzo
Scamozzi
finished
the
structure
according
to
Sansovino’s
plans.
Books
for
the
library
began
to
be
collected
even
before
the
building
was
built.
The
nucleus
of
the
collection
was
a
donation
of
valuable
Byzantine
and
Renaissance
Serenissimi
manuscripts
collected
by
the
scientist,
patron
and
collector,
Cardinal
Bessarion,
who
donated
his
collection
on
May
31,
1468.
It
contained
about
750
codices
in
Latin
and
Greek,
with
250
manuscripts
and
some
printed
books
(incunabula),
it
was
the
first
public
library
open
to
scholars
and
students
in
Venice.
The
holdings
of
the
Marciana
Library
were
significantly
enriched
in
the
18th
century
when
collections
were
collected
in
several
monasteries,
such
as
Sts.
Giovanni
e
Paolo
from
Venice
and
St.
Giovanni
di
Verdara
of
Padua,
handed
over
to
Marciana
for
further
safekeeping.
With
the
fall
of
the
Venetian
Republic
in
1797,
the
Marciana
holdings
were
enriched
by
the
entry
of
a
large
number
of
manuscripts
and
books
from
religious
institutions
(churches
and
monasteries)
that
had
been
banned
and
disbanded
during
Napoleon's
rule.
In
1811,
the
library
was
moved
to
the
more
spacious
premises
of
the
Doge's
Palace.
In
1904,
the
collection
was
moved
to
the
building
of
Sansovinova
Zecca,
a
mint
(built
in
1537-1547).
The
library
has
since
returned
to
its
original
space,
but
has
also
expanded
to
parts
of
the
neighboring
Procuratie
Nuova.
Today,
Marciana
has
about
a
million
printed
books,
and
about
13,000
manuscripts,
2,883
incunabula,
and
24,055
works
printed
between
1500
and
1600.
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