Come in all Jesuit colleges, also 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 burr wood, dating back to the mid-1600s in its layout.
During the 1700s, the Library underwent several renovations: around the mid-century, the wooden decor was renewed in the style of Genoese barocchetto, and in 1777 the shelving was raised 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 religious corporations gradually suppressed were merged. 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 have not been preserved, the manuscript volumes compiled 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 redirected 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 old Jesuit library dates back to the 1830s, increased from the original 15 to the current 24 meters in length to accommodate the enlarged book collection.
Declared in 1801 National Public Library, the government established the library’s authority to receive mandatory deposits 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 never been lost.
In 1866, with the last wave of suppressions of religious congregations, the library was further enriched with convent libraries, justifying the presence among its current collections of a large core of books on religious and theological subjects.
The continuous expansion of the book collections soon raised the issue of insufficient premises. After various hypotheses, the solution was found by assigning the former church of the Jesuit College as the new library headquarters. The renovation project adopted a solution considered avant-garde at the time: the church nave was horizontally divided to house the book repository, consisting of a four-story self-supporting and seismic-resistant 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 enlarged since 2003 with some rooms at Via Balbi 38b, could not ensure sufficient space to house the book collections. To solve this problem, the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities purchased the premises, facing the train station of Piazza Principe, of the former Hotel Colombia at Via Balbi 40. This new and prestigious residence, whose transformation is now completed, will allow the Library in the coming years to expand services and bring together projects and cultural drives in a fully renewed urban area. All materials, offices, and part of the services previously located at Via Balbi 38b were transferred to the new headquarters in October 2013. Since July 2014, the offices previously based at the historic seat have also been moved to the new headquarters, which has become the single and main seat of the library.
The largest bibliographic institution in Liguria, holder of the legal deposit of the editorial production of the Region, the Library owns more than 600,000 items including volumes, pamphlets, manuscripts, incunabula, sixteenth-century books, autographs, periodicals. The library rooms are 34. The first three rooms house most of the printed book heritage from the College and the Jesuit House of Professed of Genoa and the Religious Congregations suppressed in the 1700s and 1800s. Among the book collection 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 received around the 1920s-1930s: the Manuel Belgrano Library (a donation from the Argentine Republic, containing 1,500 volumes related to the history of the Argentine territory), the Geography of the American States (established by government order in 1931, containing about 1,200 volumes); the Military Garrison Library (permanent transfer of 1934, consisting of texts concerning military disciplines); the Laura Collection (composed of 13,000 volumes and pamphlets mainly of philosophical and religious, sociological and literary nature); the Rossello Collection (bequest from the 1930s, containing about 1,500 volumes mainly on legal subjects); the Gropallo Collection (about 1,750 volumes mostly literary texts).
In the library’s Conservation Sector, which as mentioned preserves the rarest relics and the entire manuscript collection, in addition to precious codices and liturgical chorales, the large collection of Autographs (about 14,000 pieces which partly include the correspondence of the 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” (including fourteen boxes of correspondence and notes), are particularly interesting.
During the first half of the 20th century, many donations and bequests of both printed book material and manuscript material were made. Among these, the precious Gerolamo Gaslini donation of 1942 (60 manuscripts from the humanistic period and 120 incunabula), the Umberto Fracchia Collection received in 1982 (including handwritten and printed literary works), and the Luigi Pelloux Collection arriving the same year (containing works mainly on historical and military topics) stand out.
Purchasing policies have also increased the collections over the years: in 1954 a collection belonging to the De Gaudenzi family was acquired from the Ministry of Public Education (3,700 editions, mostly by D’Annunzio and on D’Annunzio criticism); a recent acquisition is the Rodocanachi Collection of great interest for 20th-century literary history. Since 2012, via an agreement with the Municipality of Genoa, the Library has had the library of the great poet and intellectual Edoardo Sanguineti on loan.
