Entrance to the Ambrosian Library.

The Biblioteca Ambrosiana is a historical library in Milan, also housing the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana art gallery. A library is a collection of information sources resources and services and the structure in which it is housed it is organized for use and maintained by a public body an institution Milan (Milano Milan (listen) is one of the largest cities in Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. 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. Saint Ambrose (c 338 &ndash 4 April 397) was a bishop of Milan who became one of the most influential ecclesiastical figures of the fourth century Federico Borromeo ( August 18, 1564 – September 22, 1631) was an Italian Ecclesiastic, cardinal and archbishop of Milan Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Syria ( سوريّة or) officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic ar الجمهورية العربية السورية 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. Bobbio is a small town and commune in the Province of Piacenza in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. Gian Vincenzo Pinelli (1535&ndash1601 was an Italian humanist from Padua, a savant whose collection of manuscripts when it was purchased from his estate The Iliad ( Greek: Ἰλιάς (Ancient Ιλιάδα (Modern is together with the Odyssey, one of two ancient

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. Francesco Maria Richini, also spelled Ricchini ( 9 February 1584 - 24 April 1658) was an Italian Baroque 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. Events 1609 - Biblioteca Ambrosiana opens its reading room the second public library of Europe. The Bodleian Library ( the main Research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in England 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. The Laurentian Library ( Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana) in Florence, Italy is famous as a repository of more than 11000 Manuscripts and 4500 Florence ( Italian: Firenze Florentia and Fiorenza) is the Capital City of the Italian region of Tuscany A printing press was attached to the library, and a school for instruction in the classical languages. A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a medium (such as paper or cloth thereby transferring an image

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. An academy ( Greek Ἀκαδημία 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. Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci ( April 15 1452 – May 2 1519 was an Italian Polymath, having been a scientist Mathematician, Engineer The Codex Atlanticus is an important twelve-volume bound set of drawings and writings by Leonardo da Vinci, the largest such set its name indicates its atlas-like breadth 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. On 15 October 1816 the Romantic poet Lord Byron visited the library. Events 533 - Byzantine General Belisarius makes his formal entry into Carthage, having conquered it from the Year 1816 ( MDCCCXVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year He was delighted by the letters between Lucrezia Borgia and Pietro Bembo ("The prettiest love letters in the world"^[1][2]) and claimed to have managed to steal a lock of her hair ("the prettiest and fairest imaginable. This article is about the historical person For the biographical opera see Lucrezia Borgia (opera. Pietro Bembo ( May 20, 1470 - either 11 January or 18 January, 1547 was an Italian scholar poet literary theorist and "^[2]) held on display^[3][4][5].

Among the manuscripts is the Muratorian fragment, of ca 170 A. The Muratorian fragment is a copy of perhaps the oldest known list of the books of the New Testament. D. , the earliest example of a Biblical canon. A Biblical canon or canon of scripture is a list or Set of Biblical books considered to be authoritative as Scripture by a particular religious

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 ( October 21, 1672 - January 23, 1750) was an Italian Historian, notable as a leading scholar of Angelo Mai ( March 7, 1782 &ndash September 8, 1854) was an Italian Cardinal and Philologist. The twentieth century of the Common Era began on Antonio Maria Ceriani ( May 2 1828 - March 2 1907) was an Italian prelate and scholar Pope Pius XI ( Latin: Pius PP XI; Italian: Pio XI; May 31 1857 &ndash February 10 1939) born Pope Pius XI ( Latin: Pius PP XI; Italian: Pio XI; May 31 1857 &ndash February 10 1939) born Giovanni Mercati ( December 17, 1866 &mdash August 23, 1957) was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church

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. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The Teatro alla Scala (or La Scala, as it is known in Milan, Italy, is one of the world's most famous Opera houses The theatre was

References

1. ^ Viragos on the march, The Spectator, June 25, 2005, by Ian Thomson, a review of Viragos on the march by Gaia Servadio. For other uses see Spectator. The Spectator is a weekly British Magazine first published on 6 July Norman Ian Thomson (born January 23, 1929, Walsall, Staffordshire) is a former English Cricketer who played in five I. B. Tauris, ISBN 1850434212.
2. ^ ^{a b} Pietro Bembo: A Renaissance Courtier Who Had His Cake and Ate It Too, Ed Quattrocchi, Caxtonian: Journal of the Caxton Club of Chicago, Volume XIII, Nº. 10, October 2005.
3. ^ The Byron Chronology: 1816-1819 - Separation and Exile on the Continent.
4. ^ Byron by John Nichol. John Nichol ( September 8, 1833 - October 11, 1894) Scottish man of letters son of the astronomer J
5. ^ Letter to Augusta Leigh, Milan, October 15, 1816. The Honourable Augusta Byron, later The Honourable Mrs George Leigh (January 26 1783 - October 12 1851 was the only daughter of John "Mad Jack" Byron Lord Byron's Letters and Journals, Chapter 5: Separation and Exile.

External links

• Biblioteca Ambrosiana web-site
• The Ambrosian Library at the Catholic Encyclopedia
• Ambrosiana Foundation, US support organization