Biblioteca universitaria di Pisa

The University Library of Pisa was opened to the public in 1742 in the premises located under the Astronomical Observatory on via Santa Maria, currently the seat of the Domus Galilaeana. Since 1823 it has been housed in the fifteenth-century building of the Sapienza, occupying the wings located to the northwest of the noble floor, where the rooms intended for users, the reading rooms, and offices are located, and the southwest wings of the second floor, used as book storage.
The renovated and modernized rooms of the Library are not particularly significant from an artistic and architectural point of view, except for the two historic rooms, the Reading Room and the Reserved Room, which maintain wooden shelving.
The first book collection was formed from the private library of Prof. Giuseppe Averani (1662–1738) received by testamentary disposition.
The original collection was increased in subsequent years with bequests, private donations, and the dismantling of the libraries of the suppressed religious Corporations.
Dating back to 1757 is the purchase of about six thousand volumes belonging to the Florentine scholar Anton Francesco Gori of archaeological and antiquarian interest. In 1771 numerous works from the Medicea-Palatina-Lotaringia Library were assigned to the Library by the will of the Grand Duke. With the abolition of the Camaldolese Monastery of San Michele in Borgo, the manuscripts of Father Guido Grandi enriched its heritage. Another eighteenth-century acquisition was the small but valuable collection of the Botanical Garden.
Important and valuable nineteenth-century collections include the manuscripts of the Egyptologist Ippolito Rosellini (library director from 1835 to 1843), the numerous volumes acquired by testamentary disposition of the University Supervisor Angelo Fabroni, the collection established at his own expense by Giuseppe Piazzini from 1820 to 1832, the period during which he directed the library, the philological collection of Michele Ferrucci (library director from 1848 to 1881), the more recent scientific libraries of Filippo Corridi and Sebastiano Timpanaro, the medical collections of Diomede Buonamici and Antonio Feroci, and the historical-literary collection of Prof. Alessandro D’Ancona.