1638/41 Paolo Marucelli (1594/1649) for Cardinal Antonio Barberini as the NOVITIATE BUILDING OF THE DOMINICANS
In 1698 Cardinal Girolamo Casanate (1620/1700) bestowed a fund of 160,000 scudi and donated his personal collection of about 25,000 books to turn it into a public library with works directed by Antonio Maria Borioni that ended in 1725
It was modified in 1905 becoming also the site of the Ministry of the Post Office
The library is specialized in the history of the Church with about 350,000 volumes, 6,000 manuscripts, 2,200 incunabula as well as about 7,000 librettos and musical dramas autographed and unpublished, including manuscripts by the great violinist Niccolò Paganini
READING ROOM
Maybe by Carlo Fontana (1634/1714)
It is one of the largest reading rooms among all the Italian libraries
"Marble statue of Cardinal Girolamo Casanate" full-size masterpiece of Pierre Legros (1666/1719) considered the best full-size portrait of the first half of the eighteenth century
Cardinal Casanate is now buried in S. Maria sopra Minerva
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