THE AMBROSIAN LIBRARY AND ITS HISTORY

The association of alumni of the high school "A. Racchetti" - Crema is pleased to invite you to the conference "The Ambrosian Library and its history". The speaker will be Dr. Franco Gallo, who has been a Doctor of the Ambrosiana since 2008, since 2010 director of Greek and Latin studies and since 2012 director of the Library. Founded at the beginning of the seventeenth century by the generous and brilliant idea of Cardinal Federico Borromeo, the Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana was solemnly opened on December 8, 1609. Cardinal Federico had set up a library, a picture gallery, a group of scholars called the Collegio dei Dottori, several Academies for the study of languages and art. Among the wonders and treasures that the cardinal had bought, collected and commissioned we can remember the Virgil that belonged to Petrarch and illuminated by Simone Martini, the Ilias picta or the oldest existing miniatures (5th century), the Martial autograph by Boccaccio, the De perspectiva pingendi by Piero della Francesca, De divina proportione by Luca Pacioli, thousands of precious and ancient codes in all languages and from all cultures, schedules, books of hours. For the Pinacoteca we remember at least the famous Basket of Fruit by Caravaggio, the gigantic preparatory cartoon of the School of Athens by Raphael, the Musico di Leonardo, the only painting by Leonardo present in Milan, and then Botticelli, Tiziano, Ghirlandaio, Bramantino ...

Cardinal Federico, a famous character inserted by Manzoni in his Betrothed, died in 1631, the year after the plague.