La biblioteca Casanatense Is located in the center of Rome, between Piazza Venezia and Piazza della Rotonda (Pantheon) and was established by the Dominican Fathers of the Convent of S. Maria sopra Minerva in Rome as a public utility library, by the will of Cardinal Girolamo Casanate (1620-1700).
Opened in 1701, at the end of the construction of the building specifically built in the area of a cloister of the Minerva, designed by the architect Antonio Maria Borioni, it had as its first core the collection of Cardinal Casanate, rich with over 25,000 volumes. The library was connected with the main centers of the European book trade and was interested both in current production and the antiquarian market, aiming at the realization of the ‘universal library’.
It stood out among Roman libraries for its enlightened acquisition policy and expert bibliothecal and cataloging activities, especially linked to the figure of Giovanni Battista Audiffredi (1714-1794).
In 1873, when the law on religious corporations was also extended to Rome, the Dominican prefect (the director of the library) was joined by a government official, and for some years the Casanatense shared administration with the Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele II, with which a direct passage was even established through a viaduct built between the two buildings.
In 1884, concluding unfavorably for the Dominicans the legal dispute initiated against the Italian state, they were replaced by state personnel.
After being administered by the Ministry of Public Education, today the library is a Peripheral Institute of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism.
