Description
The Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria of Turin is one of Italy's great libraries, on Piazza Carlo Alberto opposite Palazzo Carignano: a modern building hidden behind the 19th-century façade of the palace's old stables.
It holds rare treasures: nearly all of Antonio Vivaldi's autograph scores, more than a thousand drawings by Juvarra, and the manuscripts of Bobbio Abbey, with Gospels from around the 4th century. The scores are on view in a display case in the Vivaldi auditorium, and the Queen Margherita room shows the queen's personal library, famous for its bindings.
On the night of January 25–26, 1904, a fire destroyed a third of the manuscripts, among them a book of hours of the Duke of Berry. That disaster gave rise to Italy's first restoration workshop, recreated in the Historic Hall with its original tools.
It holds rare treasures: nearly all of Antonio Vivaldi's autograph scores, more than a thousand drawings by Juvarra, and the manuscripts of Bobbio Abbey, with Gospels from around the 4th century. The scores are on view in a display case in the Vivaldi auditorium, and the Queen Margherita room shows the queen's personal library, famous for its bindings.
On the night of January 25–26, 1904, a fire destroyed a third of the manuscripts, among them a book of hours of the Duke of Berry. That disaster gave rise to Italy's first restoration workshop, recreated in the Historic Hall with its original tools.