The Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana or BML) is a historic library in Florence, Italy, containing more than 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books. Built in a cloister of the Medicean Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze under the patronage of the Medici pope Clement VII, the library was built to emphasize that the Medici were no longer just merchants but members of intelligent and ecclesiastical society. It contains the manuscripts and books belonging to the private library of the Medici family. The library building is renowned for its architecture that was designed by Michelangelo and is an example of Mannerism.

All of the book-bound manuscripts in the library are identified in its Codex Laurentianus. The library conserves the Littera Florentina, the Vergilius Mediceus, the Nahuatl Florentine Codex, the Rabula Gospels, the Codex Amiatinus, the Squarcialupi Codex, and the fragmentary Erinna papyrus that contains part of her Distaff.

Architecture

The Laurentian Library was commissioned in 1523 and construction began in 1525; however, when Michelangelo left Florence in 1534, only the walls of the reading room were complete. It was then continued by Tribolo, Vasari, and Ammannati based on plans and verbal instructions from Michelangelo. The library opened by 1571. In this way, the library integrates parts executed by Michelangelo with others built much later in an interpretation of his instructions. The Laurentian Library is one of Michelangelo's most important architectural achievements. Even Michelangelo's contemporaries realized that the innovations and use of space in the Laurentian Library were revolutionary.

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The two-story quattrocento cloister remained unchanged by the addition of the library. Because of this, certain features of Michelangelo's plan, such as length and width, were already determined. Therefore, new walls were built on pre-existing walls and cloisters. Because the walls were built on pre-existing walls, recessing the columns into the walls was a structural necessity. This led to a unique style and pattern that Michelangelo took advantage of.

thumb|right|Staircase

thumb|left|Vestibule plan, after [[Banister Fletcher]]

Staircase

The plan of the stairs changed dramatically in the design phase. Originally in the first design in 1524, two flights of stairs were placed against the side walls and formed a bridge in front of the reading room door. A year later, the stairway was moved to the middle of the vestibule. Tribolo attempted to carry out this plan in 1550, but nothing was built. Ammannati took on the challenge of interpreting Michelangelo's ideas to the best of his abilities using a small clay model, scanty material, and Michelangelo's instructions.

left|thumb|The reading room viewed from the top of the stairs

Interpretation

thumb|The Bibliotheca Medicea is also a fully modern scholarly library.

In the ricetto, critics have noted that the recessed columns in the vestibule make the walls resemble taut skin stretched between vertical supports. This caused the room to appear as if it mimics the human body, which at the time of the Italian Renaissance was believed to be the ideal form. The columns of the building also appear to be supported on corbels so that the weight seems to be carried on weak elements. Because of the seeming instability of the structure, the viewer cannot discern whether the roof is supported by the columns or the walls. This sense of ambiguity is heightened by the unorthodox forms of the windows and, especially, by the compressed quality of all architectural elements, which creates a sense of tension and constrained energy.

Collection

In 1571, Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, opened the still-incomplete library to scholars. The core collection consists of approximately 3,000 manuscripts, indexed by Giovanni Rondinelli and Baccio Valori in 1589, which were placed on parapets (plutei) at the library's opening in 1571. These manuscripts have the signature Pluteus or Pluteo (Plut.). These manuscripts include the library the Medici collected during the fifteenth century, which were re-acquired by Giovanni di Medici (Pope Leo X) in 1508 and moved to Florence in the 1520s by Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici (Pope Clement VII). The Medici library was enlarged by collections assembled by Francesco Sassetti and Francesco Filelfo, manuscripts acquired by Leo X, and by the library of the Dominican convent of San Marco.

The library conserves the Nahuatl Florentine Codex, the major source of pre-conquest information about Aztec life in the western hemisphere. Among other well-known manuscripts in the Laurentian Library are the sixth-century Syriac Rabula Gospels; the Codex Amiatinus that contains the earliest surviving manuscript of the Latin Vulgate Bible; the Squarcialupi Codex that is an important early musical manuscript; and a papyrus which preserves part of the ancient Greek poet Erinna's long poem, the Distaff.

See also

  • Papyrus 35
  • Papyrus 36
  • Papyrus 89
  • Uncial 0171
  • Uncial 0174
  • Minuscule 458
  • Minuscule 619
  • Minuscule 836 (Gregory-Aland)

References

Further reading

  • Pierre Petitmengin – Laetitia Ciccolini, Jean Matal et la bibliothèque de Saint Marc de Florence (1545), "Italia medioevale e umanistica", 46, 2005, pp.&nbsp;207–238.
  • Official website
  • Photographs of the library and vestibule, with remarks by Giorgio Vasari
  • Digitized Documents at the Teca Digitale