The Guarneriana Library, which was established by a testamentary legacy, was one of the first public libraries in Italy and the first one in Friuli. It was founded at the bequest of Guarnerio d’Artegna, the parish priest of San Daniele, who donated 173 handwritten codices that he had copied or had had copied and decorated in his “scriptorium” throughout his life to the Church of St. Michael in 1466. With his legacy, Guarnerio expressed the wish that his books be kept in a place where people could study and read them without removing them from the premises. In this way it was possible to avoid a harmful dispersion of the collection that had remained almost unchanged throughout the centuries, leaving one of the most consistent and interesting book funds of Italian Humanism.
In 1736 the collection was enriched thanks to a donation by Monsignor Giusto Fontanini who also left the means needed to create a wooden bookcase. Fontanini’s legacy included among other things, a codex containing Dante’s Hell.
In 1749 a codex dating back to the end of the 1400s that included the Canzoniere and the Triumphs by Petrarca was bought by the community of San Daniele. New legacies were added in 1700 and 1800.
In 1797, during the Napoleonic period, some codices were taken away by order of the French commissary Gaspare Monge. Only the ability of the librarian who feigned forgetfulness limited the damage.
The Guarneriana has been visited by famous people such as Foscolo, Nievo and Carducci. Moreover, it passed almost undamaged through two World Wars thanks to its competent Administration. Now the Municipal Historical Archives and the Archives of the old Saint Anthony’s Hospital are housed in its rooms.
For information:
Guarneriana Library (Modern Division)
Via Roma, n. 4
Tel. +39 0432 954934
