Come in all Jesuit colleges, also in the Genoese one there were at least two libraries, the “domestic” one, for school use, and the “Library” proper, housed in the so-called “Third Room,” which still preserves today the monumental part with shelves veneered in briar wood, dating back in layout to the mid-17th century.
During the 18th century, the Library underwent several renovations: around the mid-century, the wooden decoration was renewed in the Genoese baroque style, and in 1777 the shelving was raised to the ceiling, building the balcony, the iron and wood railing that runs 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 was transformed into the “Library of the Public University of Strada Balbi” where the libraries of the convents and the religious corporations increasingly suppressed were brought together. 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 are not preserved, the manuscript volumes written 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 the volumes from the libraries of the numerous suppressed Genoese and Ligurian religious orders during the “Jacobin” period were again diverted to the library, as well as manuscripts and volumes from the Ventimiglia library of the learned Augustinian friar Angelico Aprosio (1607-1681).
The extension 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 heritage.
Declared in 1801 Public National Library, the government established the library’s responsibility to receive the legal deposit from Ligurian printers. In 1815, with the transfer of Ligurian territories to the Savoy, as the “library of the Royal University of Genoa” it resumed its close connection with the university, which had in any case never been lost.
In 1866, with the last wave of suppression of religious congregations, the library was further enriched with convent libraries, which justifies the presence among its current collections of a substantial core of religious and theological books.
The continuous expansion of the book collections soon posed the problem of insufficient premises. After various hypotheses, the solution was found by assigning the former church of the Jesuit College as the new library headquarters. In the renovation project, a solution considered avant-garde at the time was adopted: the church nave was divided horizontally to accommodate the book storage, consisting of a four-story self-supporting and 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, since 1975 the Library has become a peripheral institute of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities.
For a long time the historic seat, although expanded since 2003 with some rooms in via Balbi 38b, could not ensure sufficient space to house the book collections. To remedy this problem, the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities purchased the building, facing the Piazza Principe railway station, of the former Hotel Colombia at Via Balbi 40. This new and prestigious venue, whose transformation has now been completed, will allow the Library to expand services and concentrate projects and cultural stimuli in a completely renewed city territorial area in the coming years. All the materials, offices, and part of the services that were located in Via Balbi 38b moved to the new location in October 2013. Since July 2014, even the offices previously based at the historic site have moved to the new headquarters, which has become the sole and main seat of the library.
The largest bibliographic institute in Liguria, holder of the legal deposit of publishing production of the Region, the Library owns more than 600,000 units including volumes, pamphlets, manuscripts, incunabula, sixteenth-century editions, autographs, periodicals. The library rooms number 34. The first three rooms house most of the printed book heritage from the College and the Professed House of the Genoese Jesuits and the Religious Congregations suppressed in the 18th and 19th centuries. Among the book heritage are also the so-called “Ligurian” and “Corsica” rooms: the first, started in 1865 by librarian Emanuele Celesia to collect texts printed in Liguria or by Ligurian authors, includes about 6,000 volumes; the Corsica room consists of about 180 volumes and pamphlets related to Corsica.
The library also owns a number of bibliographic collections arriving around the ’20s – ’30s: the Manuel Belgrano Library (donation from the Argentine Republic, includes 1,500 volumes related to the history of the Argentine territory), the Geographic Library of the American States (established by government order in 1931, includes approx. 1,200 volumes); the Military Garrison Library (permanent transfer of 1934, made up of texts regarding military disciplines); the Laura Collection (composed of 13,000 volumes and pamphlets mainly of philosophical and religious, sociological, and literary character); the Rossello Collection (legacy from the ’30s, includes about 1,500 volumes mostly on legal subjects); the Gropallo Collection (about 1,750 volumes mostly literary texts).
In the Conservation Sector of the library, which as seen houses the rarest relics and all the manuscript collections, in addition to precious codes and liturgical chorales, the large collection of Autographs (about 14,000 pieces, which partly include the correspondence of various library directors who had contacts with many figures of the intellectual and political world) and the Nino Bixio Collection, known as “Autographs of the Risorgimento” (includes fourteen boxes of correspondence and notes) are particularly interesting.
During the first half of the 20th century, many donations and legacies of both printed and manuscript materials were received. Among these are remembered the precious Gerolamo Gaslini donation of 1942 (60 manuscripts of the humanistic period and 120 incunabula), the Umberto Fracchia Collection arrived in 1982 (comprises handwritten and printed works of literary character), and the Luigi Pelloux Collection arrived the same year (contains works mainly on historical and military topics).
The acquisitions policy has also increased the collections over the years: in 1954 a collection belonging to the De Gaudenzi family (3,700 editions mainly of D’Annunzio and D’Annunzio criticism) was purchased from the Ministry of Public Education; the recent acquisition of the Rodocanachi Collection is 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.
