Museo The Library of the Province of Salerno

This is the oldest provincial public library of Italy, its foundation dating to the year 1843; it has undergone the vicissitudes of more than a century and a half, surviving wars and numerous dislocations. The richness of its collections and the high quality of numerous donations now allow it to house more than 350,000 volumes. The over 2,000 books donated by its first librarian, Francesco Cerenza consented the birth of the institution at the Royal Lyceum School “Torquato Tasso.” The library of Alfonso Guariglia, professor of commercial law at the University of Naples, ws one of the most important acquisitions made by the Provincial Library. The legacy, made on 29 June 1935 by Alfonso's son Raffaele, includes literary as well as juridical volumes, some of exceptional rarity, and all splendidly bound. A place of particular prestige is occupied by the rich store of incunabula, which reached the newly founded Library (1844) thanks to the suppression of the monasteries in 1866. The innovative elements concern many contexts, from the typographical marks which in part are not found among registered ones, to the variant editions from those that have entered most collections. The contents of the volumes tend to privilege theology and philosophy, with a conspicuous presence of the gospels, and Latin Bibles, among the illustrated works. Yet there are also medical and pharmacological treatises, whose presence befits a territory that had expressed –and still expressed-- leading achievements in the knowledge of these subjects. Therefore herbals also feature prominently, along with treatises on opthamology, geometry, astronomy, the military and culinary arts, just as there are adequate numbers of the Latin classics, and the most famous works of literature dating from the fourteenth to the early twentieth century.

Autore dei testi:
Matilde Romito con la collaborazione di Silvia Pacifico

Traduzioni e voci:
Italiano – voce Matilde Romito - Editing audio Associazione Culturale Prisma
Inglese – traduzione e voce Erich Nicholson - Studio Pippolaticomusic di Luca Bechelli

Immagini:
Tutte le immagini sono di proprietà della Provincia di Salerno, autore Gaetano Guida