Royal Library of Turin

Turin, Italy

The Royal Library of Turin (Biblioteca Reale di Torino) is a library located within the ground floor of the Royal Palace of Turin. The library contains approximately 200,000 print volumes, 4,500 manuscripts, 3,055 drawings, 187 incunabula predating 1501, 5,019 sixteenth century books, 20,987 pamphlets, 1,500 woks on parchment, 1,112 periodicals, and 400 photo albums, maps, engravings, and prints.

Since his ascent to the throne of the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1831, king Charles Albert wished to boost the cultural standing of the nation, and he did so through the introduction of a series of reforms and the establishment of a number of institutions. The library was then founded in 1842 as one of such institutions, with one of its aims being that of grouping and safeguarding manuscripts collected by the House of Savoy. The library was fitted out by painter and decorator Pelagio Palagi. In 1893 a Russian collector by the name of Theodore Sabachnikoff donated Leonardo da Vinci's Codex on the Flight of Birds to the library's collection as a gift to the king. Further works by Leonardo held by the library include his presumed self-portrait, his study for the angel in his Virgin of the Rocks, and his study for the angel in Verrocchio's The Baptism of Christ.

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Details

Founded: 1842
Category: Miscellaneous historic sites in Italy

More Information

en.wikipedia.org

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4/5 (based on Google user reviews)

User Reviews

Carly L (5 months ago)
There is a sign saying that visitors with a museum ticket can enter the reading room but I have a valid ticket and the staff won’t let me in. The old woman at the front desk is extremely rude and basically shouting at me, despite the tranquil library atmosphere. I love visiting different historic libraries when I travel so it’s very disappointing to have paid for the full Royal Palaces experience and then to be denied access to parts of the complex that are clearly open to other people who the staff seem to like more than tourists.
Frédéric Borgognon (5 months ago)
Lovely and historic library which is UNESCO registered. Located in the royale Palace ! The library contained lot of masterpieces such as Leonard de Vinci portrait! The interior of library is beautiful ! The visit is short but worth it
Lyubomira Aleksova (5 months ago)
I've visited twice. The first visit was great, we saw the Leonardo exhibition, the people checking the tickets were very nice. The second time, the lady at the entrance was extremely rude to everyone who entered, made the visit quite unpleasant, and even forcefully shoved us to get out of there quicker.
Steve Turner (7 months ago)
They have an exhibition of Leonard da Vinci drawings which was incredible. An original self portrait in ink and eight separate illustrations of other drawings. Excellent. We visited at 09:00. When it opened and were more or less alone for the entire time we were there
Patric Pop (Business Portraits Photos) (20 months ago)
Dive into a different epoch with the royal library as backdrop. What a wonderful place to be in and hearing every single footstep on the wooden floors. We were very lucky and only a handful of people were also visiting the Leonardo exhibition and goosebump moments seeing his sketches and most famously, his self-portrait! Another goosebump moment for me was the world map sketched by Amerigo Vespucci's nephew when the new world was discovered and named after him “America!” Absolutely loved also the books that detailed Leonardo's career and fello intellectuals. Some of these books contained his annotations. Not to miss.
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