Biblioteca civica Berio, Public library in Genoa, Italy.
Biblioteca civica Berio is a public library in Genoa that occupies multiple floors of a former seminary building. Its collections include books, periodicals, digital resources, and a dedicated children's literature section.
The library opened to the public in 1775 in via del Campo, founded by the abbot Carlo Giuseppe Vespasiano Berio. After his death in 1794 it passed to relatives, and in 1817 Vittorio Emanuele I of Sardinia gave it to Genoa; the city took definitive possession in 1824. From 1831 it occupied the piano nobile of the Accademia ligustica in piazza De Ferrari until 1998, when it moved to the former seminary in Carignano.
The library serves as a gathering place for students, scholars, and locals who use it regularly for study and research. You will see people working at tables, browsing shelves, and sharing ideas in the reading areas.
The library welcomes visitors from Monday through Saturday across its various reading rooms and research areas. It is best explored on foot to discover the different sections at your own pace.
Among the manuscripts kept at the Berio are the Libro d'Ore Durazzo, a book of hours known as the Offiziolo Durazzo, and the Antifonari di Final Pia, illuminated with miniatures by the Riccio and dated 1532. The library also holds about 2,000 volumes on Columbus and the discovery of America, many donated by Paolo Emilio Taviani in 2000.
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