Library: Presentation

The Library is located inside the San Francesco della Vigna Friary (which dates back to the 13th century). In 1437 we find the first reliable information about the Library. Between the 16th and the 18th century, the Library was quite renown for its texts as well as for the activities practised in it (like giving public lectures in Theology and holding the Ecclesiastical Science meetings of the Academy).

The development of the Library came to a standstill following the 19th century various abolitions of the Napoleonic government and the subsequent transformation of the Friary into military barracks.

After the second half of the 19th century, the Franciscan community was able to return and to re-establish the Library, which, thanks to legacies and inheritances from religious and lay people, increased the number of texts considerably.

Since 1989, St. Bernardino Institute of Ecumenical Studies has been based in the Friary. Subsequently, to respond to the needs of lecturers and students, a new sector on Ecumenism was established  with works related to Christian denominations, and to the dialogue among them and with other religions.

The current Library's assets consist of an ancient collection of anthem books, incunabula, 16th century printed books, manuscripts, 17th, 18th and 19th century books (approx. 20.000 volumes) and a modern collection of about 80.000 works. These are mostly theological texts: Holy Scripture, Theological Dogmatics, Moral Theology, Patristic, Homiletics, History of the Church, Canon Law. A large section is devoted to Ecumenism and to Franciscanism in its theological, historical and artistic aspects. To add to all these, a further section includes 556 different journals (343 still running - 213 ceased) for a total of about 10.000 volumes.