Come in all Jesuit colleges, even in the Genoese one there were at least two libraries, the “domestic” one, for school use, and the real “Library” housed in the so-called “Third Room”, which still preserves the monumental part with shelves veneered in burl wood, dating back in design to the mid-1600s.
During the 18th century the Library underwent several renovations: around the middle of the century the wooden decor was renewed in the style of Genoese barocchetto and in 1777 the shelving was raised up to the ceiling, building the gallery, the iron and wood railing running along the entire room, and the “small spiral staircase” accessing the upper floor.
With the dissolution, in 1773, of the Society of Jesus, the College was renamed Public University and came under the direct control of the Republic of Genoa. Thus the Jesuit library transformed into the “Library of the Public University of Strada Balbi” where the libraries of the convents and the religious corporations gradually suppressed were combined. In 1778 the scholar Gaspare Luigi Oderico was appointed librarian with the task of cataloging the books of the former College. Completed in 1785 and, since previous inventories were not preserved, the manuscripts drafted by Oderico constitute the oldest catalog of the library’s book collections.
During the Ligurian democratic republic, between 1797 and 1799, it experienced further growth as volumes from the libraries of the numerous Genoese and Ligurian religious orders suppressed during the “Jacobin” period were again directed to the library, as well as manuscripts and volumes from the Ventimiglia library of the learned Augustinian friar Angelico Aprosio (1607-1681).
The elongation of the ancient Jesuit library dates back to the 1830s, extended from the original 15 to the current 24 meters in length, to accommodate the increased volume holdings.
Declared in 1801 Public National Library, the government assigned the library the responsibility of receiving the legal deposit from Ligurian printers. In 1815, with the transfer of Ligurian territories under the Savoy, as “library of the royal University of Genoa” it resumed its close connection with the university, which in fact was never lost.
In 1866, with the last wave of suppression of religious congregations, the library was further enriched by conventual libraries, which explains the presence among its current collections of a substantial core of books on religious and theological subjects.
The continuous expansion of the book collections soon raised the problem of insufficient space. After various proposals, the solution was found by allocating the former church of the Jesuit College as the new library headquarters. The restructuring project adopted a solution considered avant-garde at the time: the nave of the church was horizontally divided to house the book storage, consisting of a four-story self-supporting and anti-seismic metal structure and, in the upper part, the reading room. The new premises were inaugurated in December 1935. With the establishment of the new ministry, from 1975 the Library became a peripheral institute of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities.
For a long time the historical headquarters, although expanded since 2003 with some rooms in Via Balbi 38b, was unable to provide sufficient space to house the book collections. To solve this problem, the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities purchased the building facing the Piazza Principe railway station, the former Hotel Colombia in Via Balbi 40. This new and prestigious residence, whose transformation has now been completed, will allow the Library in the coming years to expand services and concentrate projects and cultural initiatives in a completely renewed city district. All materials, offices, and some services previously located at Via Balbi 38b moved to the new headquarters in October 2013. Since July 2014, the offices based in the historical headquarters have also been transferred to the new location, which has become the sole and main seat of the library.
The largest bibliographic institution in Liguria, holder of the legal deposit for the publishing production of the Region, the Library houses more than 600,000 units including volumes, pamphlets, manuscripts, incunabula, sixteenth-century prints, autographs, and periodicals. The library rooms number 34. The first three rooms gather the majority of the printed book heritage originating from the College and the Casa Professa of the Genoese Jesuits and the Religious Congregations suppressed in the 18th and 19th centuries. Among the book heritage are also the so-called “Liguria” and “Corsica” rooms: the former, begun in 1865 by librarian Emanuele Celesia to collect texts printed in Liguria or by Ligurian authors, contains about 6,000 volumes; the Corsica room is made up of about 180 volumes and pamphlets regarding Corsica.
The library also holds a number of bibliographic collections acquired around the 1920s – 1930s: the Manuel Belgrano Library (donation from the Argentine Republic, includes 1,500 volumes related to the history of Argentine territory), the Geography of the American States (established by government decree in 1931, includes approx. 1,200 volumes); the Military Garrison Library (permanent transfer of 1934, consisting of texts relating to military disciplines); the Laura Collection (comprising 13,000 volumes and pamphlets mainly on philosophy and religion, sociology, and literature); the Rossello Collection (bequeathed in the 1930s, containing approx. 1,500 volumes mainly on legal subjects); the Gropallo Collection (approx. 1,750 volumes mostly literary texts).
In the Library’s Conservation Sector, which as noted safeguards the rarest relics and the entire manuscript collection, as well as precious codices and liturgical chorales, there are particularly interesting the large collection of Autographs (about 14,000 pieces partly including correspondence of various library directors who had contacts with many figures from the intellectual and political world) and the Nino Bixio Collection, known as “Autographs of the Risorgimento” (includes fourteen boxes of correspondence and notes).
During the first half of the 20th century, many donations and bequests were made both of printed library material and manuscripts. Among these are the precious Gerolamo Gaslini donation of 1942 (60 manuscripts from the humanistic period and 120 incunabula), the Umberto Fracchia Collection received in 1982 (including manuscript and printed works of literary character), and the Luigi Pelloux Collection received the same year (containing mainly historical and military works).
The purchasing policy has also increased the collections over the years: in 1954 the Ministry of Public Education acquired a collection belonging to the De Gaudenzi family (3,700 editions mostly of d’Annunzio’s and d’Annunzian criticism); a recent acquisition is the Rodocanachi Collection of great interest for the literary history of the 20th century. Since 2012, through an agreement with the Municipality of Genoa, the Library has had on loan the library of the great poet and intellectual Edoardo Sanguineti.
