University Library of Naples

For the new headquarters of the University, architect Giulio Cesare Fontana was commissioned to start the renovation of the old equestrian building outside the gate of S. Maria di Costantinopoli: the Palazzo degli Studi, with works not yet completed, was inaugurated on June 14, 1615.

Charles of Bourbon, once ascended to the throne of Naples, ordered the resumption of work on the Palazzo degli Studi; the measures adopted in the following years aimed to restore dignity and functionality to the university complex until its definitive transfer, in 1777, into the suppressed Massimo Jesuits’ College at Salvatore.

The suppression of religious orders, decreed by the government of Joseph Bonaparte and Joachim Murat, along with the related requisition of all cultural assets, laid the groundwork for the activation of a library center usable by a university-level audience.

Within the framework of the distribution of monastic funds, Giuseppe Capecelatro, Minister of the Interior, signed on September 27, 1808, the order according to which the Royal University of Studies could benefit from the books formerly belonging to the suppressed monasteries and destined for the Royal College established at Salvatore.

Between 1808 and 1810, the Prefect of the Library, physicist and naturalist Giuseppe Antonio Ruffa, collected books coming from the monasteries of S. Lorenzo, S. Maria degli Angeli, S. Pietro Martire, della Sanità, SS. Apostoli, S. Brigida, S. Domenico Maggiore.

Unfortunately, the funding and materials delivery, stacked without order and any inventory, and thus effectively inaccessible, was interrupted in favor of the new Murat project which planned, in the old monastery of Monte Oliveto, the founding of a Municipal Library named after the French sovereign, for which the collections of Marquis Francesco Taccone and Francesco Orlando, distinguished bibliophiles, were purchased in 1812.

The Bourbon restoration in 1815 marked the definitive decline of the Gioacchina Library and, conversely, the revival of that of the Royal Studies, which was assigned the large hall on the first floor of the College at Salvatore and initially all the book heritage accumulated in the Gioacchina.

In 1819, however, a royal edict obliged the Library of Studies to hand over to the Royal Library all bibliographically valuable books. The University, in 1822, proceeded to appoint its new manager designating mathematician Vincenzo Flauti, who was tasked with setting up a “modern” and efficient structure: materials were ordered on shelves transported from Monte Oliveto, the author catalog printing was started, and suitable regulations based on the Royal Library were formulated. In January 1827 the Library was opened to the public.

Rector Michele Tenore, an internationally renowned botanist, on the occasion of the work of the VII Congress of Scientists in 1845, equipped the Library with a special fund for subscribing to Italian and foreign scientific journals and periodicals, thus updating its bibliographic heritage.

After the Unification, the University Library became part of the first-class government libraries and famous librarians and scholars succeeded to the director’s office: Carlo Neri (1861), Tommaso Gar (1863), Giulio Minervini (1867-1886). These were the years in which the University Library took on a particular cultural character, recording a significant increase both due to the acquisition of book funds from religious corporations suppressed in 1861 and spontaneous donations from professors, but above all due to a progressive increase in financial endowment allowing the purchase of important collections.

The Library was enriched with the collections of Filippo and Carlo Cassola (chemistry), Francesco Briganti (natural sciences), Paolo Panceri (zoology and comparative anatomy), Oronzo Gabriele Costa (paleontology), Celestino Cavedani (philology and archaeology); also notable were: the Dante collection donated in 1872 by Alfonso della Valle di Casanova, rich in ancient and valuable editions; the library of Vittorio Imbriani, mainly of literary and linguistic interest, donated by his wife Gigia Rosnati in 1891; the substantial collection of legal and literary works and pamphlets donated in the late 19th century by Domenico Viti and Domenico De Pilla.

Under the direction of mathematician Dino Padelletti (1887), to whom the reorganization of periodicals, incunabula, and Aldines is owed, with the compilation of special catalogs, succeeded those of Alessandro Moroni (1888-1895), who collaborated with Salvatore Di Giacomo, Giuseppe Fumagalli (1895-1897), Emidio Martini (until 1900), and then Alfonso Miola, Mariano Fava, Gaetano Burgada, Giuseppe d’Elia and Giovanni Bresciano until 1933. In the early 20th century, the Padelletti, Battaglini (mathematics), and Aievoli (medicine) donations were cataloged, strengthening the scientific identity given to the Library since Flauti’s leadership.

Restored after the 1930 earthquake, the Library suffered serious damage in the last conflict and the loss of valuable 16th-century books, Bodoni editions, and volumes from the Casanova collection housed in the Friars Minor Convent of S. Francesco in Minturno. Following the 1980 earthquake, numerous restoration and consolidation interventions allowed the enhancement of equipment and significant renewal of services and structures.

But the institutional tasks of protection and conservation do not exhaust the Library’s activities which, deeply rooted in the city’s fabric, provides a cultural service through constant modernization of its organization, able to positively respond to an increasingly numerous and diverse demand.