The original core of the collection consists of the library of Abbot Francesco who, dying in Rome in 1703, had arranged for his own library, kept in the palace on Via Condotti, to be destined for the creation of a public library in Florence where, at the time of his death, no such institution was present.
A new building was constructed from scratch, and no existing property was adapted, as was the case for many libraries opened in the 17th-18th centuries.
The construction was carried out by the founder’s nephew, Alessandro Marucelli, who also donated his own books and appointed Angelo Maria Bandini as librarian, who led the Library for about fifty years. Among the librarians who successively led the institution, Francesco Del Furia, Guido Biagi, Desiderio Chilovi, and Enrico Jahier stand out, who, due to their competence and activities, also had international significance.
It was under Bandini’s direction, in 1783, that the collection of drawings and prints assembled by the last representative of the family, Francesco di Ruberto, entered the Marucelliana. Other considerable expansions arrived at the Library following the suppression of convents, grand ducal and Napoleonic suppressions, and finally that which occurred in 1866 in the early years of the Kingdom of Italy. This increase allowed the Library to acquire most of the 16th-century prints and incunabula currently held.
In the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the following century, various collections of historical, artistic, literary, and political nature arrived and were established in the Library, such as the Martelli legacy, the Bonamici collection, the Nencioni correspondence, Industrial Art, etc.
Following the 1910 law, which established the mandatory deposit of printed works, the Marucelliana began to receive editions printed in the four districts of the province of Florence, Pistoia, San Miniato, and Rocca San Casciano. To this day, the Library receives works printed in Florence and its province.
