History of the Library

During the eighteenth century the number of volumes was greatly increased through the compulsory deposit of academic publications, regular purchases of books and entire collections, and through major donations. Additional collections came as a result of the suppressions of the Society of Jesus and the conventual orders during the Napoleonic era.

Between 1809 and 1815 the library of Tommaso Valperga of Caluso, with its numerous Hebrew, Arabic and Indian manuscripts, was acquired. Between 1820 and 1824, thanks to the tenacious efforts of Amedeo Peyron, 69 manuscripts from the suppressed monastery of San Colombano di Bobbio were forfeited. Also in the nineteenth century, the Library came into possession of the manuscripts of Prince Carlo Emanuele Dal Pozzo della Cisterna, Count Cesare Saluzzo, the books of Professor Giuseppe Biamonti, the collection of aldines of Marquis Carlo Alfieri di Sostegno, the manuscripts of Prospero Balbo, and the autographs of Carlo Denina. Contextually, the collections were enriched thanks to the printing right granted by King Carlo Alberto in 1848.

Royal Decree No. 2974 of Jan. 20, 1876 established the new name of the National University Library, including it among the autonomous libraries of the first degree with the task of “representing, in its continuity and generality, the progress and state of Italian and foreign culture.”

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the block identified to house the new headquarters was occupied partly by the former Stables of Palazzo Carignano, erected in 1790 to a design by Filippo Castelli, and partly by the Palazzo del Debito Pubblico, built in 1842 to a design by Alessandro Antonelli. In 1936 the entire area was handed over to the National Library, and the following year the City of Turin undertook demolition work there, preserving only the neoclassical facade of the former Stables on Piazza Carlo Alberto, which was destined to become the main elevation of the new Library. Construction was abruptly interrupted during World War II, erected in 1790 to a design by Filippo Castelli, and partly by the Palazzo del Debito Pubblico, built in 1842 to a design by Alessandro Antonelli. In 1936 the entire area was handed over to the National Library, and the following year the City of Turin undertook demolition work there, safeguarding only the neoclassical facade of the former Stables on Piazza Carlo Alberto, which was destined to become the main elevation of the new Library. The construction site came to an abrupt halt during World War II.

Two years later the historic restoration laboratory, created in the wake of the 1904 fire, was housed at the new building, and on February 15, 1976, the official opening of the premises took place. Prominent among the most functional aspects of the new building was theautomatic transport system for books from the storerooms to the reading, lending and periodicals rooms, solved with a Siemens machine of conveyor belts connected with a Paternoster continuous motion elevator.

Thanks to twentieth-century acquisitions, today the Library possesses a conspicuous patrimony that totals more than 1,550,000 volumes. Among the most important holdings are the autographs of Foscolo, Gioberti, Pellico and Tommaseo; the studies and geographical drawings of Agostino Codazzi; the Foà-Giordano collections containing the autograph manuscripts of Antonio Vivaldi; the Corpus Juvarrianum, which contains more than 1,000 drawings by the architect Filippo Juvarra; the Regina Margherita fund, with more than 13.000 volumes that belonged to the first queen of Italy; the 1904 fund, so called in reference to the set of volumes that arrived after the fire of 1904 as symbolic compensation for the huge losses suffered; an affair that testifies to the centrality of the theme of gift in the history of the Library and for its development as a vital organism.