Over the centuries, flames spread more times in the Library: in 1667 in what was then the ducal Library, in 1942 during the Second World War and in the night between 25 and 26 January 1904.
The losses for the Library were wide, above all for what concerns the important manuscript heritage, of which about one third of the material was destroyed (at least 1500 manuscripts out of a maximum of 4500).
Immediately, a commission was set up in order to carry out the necessary measures for the recovery and identification of the damaged material: it was established a restoration laboratory, the first in Italy in a public library.
The catastrophic event moved the conscience of the Italian and European culture. The Library, originally named “University Library” but in reality autonomous, had shared the positivist climate that in Turin had produced the activity of scholars like Lombroso and Peano; it enjoyed good fame not only among cultural and scientific circles, but it was seen as an inestimable heritage of the entire city.
Among the aims for the celebration of the 300 years of its foundation, the National University Library decided to set up again and enhance the room dedicated to its historic furnishings.
The room hosts the reconstruction of the restoration laboratory, born after the fire of 1904, where it is possible to admire dozens of original tools (for example, presses, humidification chamber, and alembic still), in addition to the original furniture (card catalogues, drawers, bookstands, tables for the consultation of books and chairs with the initials of the National Library intertwined). The laboratory was originally hosted at the Institute of medical subjects of the faculty of medicine in Valentino. Carlo Marré, an expert restorer at the Vatican Apostolic Library, was its director since the summer 1904. After his death, in 1918, the laboratory was closed and moved at the place of the former Collegio delle Province in via Bogino 6, at that time already destined to become the new headquarters of the Library. Lately, Erminia Caudana, formerly collaborator of Marré, directed the laboratory: she improved some techniques concerning the release of the parchments stick together in compact blocks. She also obtained relevant results in the restoration of illuminated codices. She remained in charge of the laboratory until her death, in 1974. Due to the works on the building, in 1935 the laboratory was moved to the Egyptian museum. When the current headquarters was completed, the laboratory was definitively moved to the new spaces and from 1977 to today, it works thanks to staff employed by the State.
