The Biblioteca Riccardiana is an Italian public library under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture, located inside the Palazzo Medici Riccardi at 10 Via de’ Ginori in Florence, in the neighborhood comprising the Mercato Centrale and the Basilica di San Lorenzo. Its main feature is preserving books collected by members of the Riccardi family and making them available in the very same rooms that were originally dedicated to that purpose. So, still today the library boasts the magnificent bookshelves, neatly carved and gilded, that create the atmosphere of a late-seventeenth-century patrician library, whose main features have all been kept intact.
Adjacent to this library is the Biblioteca Moreniana; although attached to one another, these libraries have a different history. They are also two separate entities from an administrative point of view, as the Moreniana is under the aegis of the Florence City Council.
Index The library: its history and its rooms The book collections Most precious works The directors Photo gallery Notes Bibliography Related topics Other projects Further links
A history of the library and its rooms The Biblioteca Riccardiana is housed on the back side of what was originally the Palazzo Medici (later and still today known as Palazzo Medici-Riccardi). The palace was purchased by Gabriello Riccardi (1606–1675) in March 1659. The entrance to the library is on Via de’ Ginori.
Replacing the family of the Tuscan grand dukes as owners of a building as rich in history as Palazzo Medici was a sort of consecration for the Riccardi, who came from humble origins and had only recently attained their noble status. At a time when the Riccardi's patrimony was inferior only to that of the Medici, Francesco di Cosimo (1648–1719) decided to invest the formidable sum of 115,000 “scudi” to restore, enlarge, and decorate the palace that his family had just bought.See F. Büttner, “All’usanza moderna ridotto”; gli interventi dei Riccardi, in G. Cherubini – G. Fanelli eds., Il Palazzo Medici-Riccardi di Firenze, Florence, 1990, pp. 150-152. On the history of the Riccardi family see P. Malanima, I Riccardi di Firenze. Una famiglia e un patrimonio nella Toscana dei Medici, Florence, 1977. That led first to a complete change in the Riccardi's life and eventually to their financial collapse.
Marquis Francesco decided to readapt some rooms on the back side of the palace (on what is today Via de’ Ginori) to create a sort of “private museum” bringing together the various family collections that had hitherto been preserved in the family house on Via Gualfonda (in the building that is now 4 Via Valfonda in Florence). Those collections consisted of medallions, bronzes, gems, cameos, ivories, and works of goldsmithery as well as the library that Francesco's great-uncle Riccardo Romolo (1558–1612) had started putting together. The works commissioned by Francesco went on for about thirty years; they were temporarily stopped around 1670 (to purchase some adjacent apartments necessary to enlarge the palace) and then resumed at a fast pace. In 1689, when those works (including the façade on the Via Larga) were not finished yet, the gallery painted by Luca Giordano was inaugurated.The gallery started being decorated toward the end of 1682; its decoration was then suspended for more than two years and was eventually completed in 1685. In 1688-1689 the family collections were moved from the palace on Via Gualfonda to the new residence. See M.J. Minicucci, Un tesoro disperso: il museo riccardiano, Florence, 1980, pp. 114-121; I Riccardi a Firenze e in villa. Tra fasto e cultura, exhibition catalogue, Florence, 1983, pp. 112-121. The occasion was an event that involved the whole city, that is, the lavish celebrations for the wedding between Ferdinando de’ Medici (the grand duke's eldest son) and Violante Beatrice of Bavaria.
The artists in charge of restoring and enlarging the palace were – in chronological order – Ferdinando Tacca, Pier Maria Baldini, and Giovanni Battista Foggini. The latter was also entrusted with designing the interiors, while it fell to Luca Giordano (one of the most admired painters of the time, nicknamed “Speedy Luca” because of his ability at painting quickly) to decorate the ceilings of the main areas, i.e., the hall and the library.Francesco Riccardi also had Luca Giordano work on several paintings; some of them were eventually sold to the English art collector Sir Denis Mahon whereas others ended up in various collections. See C. Giannini, Fra “modello” e “ricordo”. Le macchie di Luca per i Riccardi e il gusto tardo barocco per l’Inaccompli, in Stanze segrete: gli artisti dei Riccardi. I ricordi di Luca Giordano e Oltre, exhibition catalogue, eds. C. Giannini and S. Meloni Trkulja, Florence, 2005, p. 5.
The gallery and the library (the latter corresponding to what is now the reading room in the “Biblioteca Riccardiana”) were initially conceived as a single unit. For this reason, they share the same decorative program. The hall (which should be considered as a late Baroque Wunderkammer) served as a majestic vestibule leading to the library.The parties that the Riccardi family often gave at their palace were an opportunity to open not only the cabinets containing precious gems, medallions, bronzes, and many ancient coins (in addition to the priceless Byzantine ivories collected by their ancestor Riccardo Romolo) but also the doors leading to the library. This way the hosts gave their guests the chance to admire the Riccardi's outstanding book collection. The frescos by Giordano follow the program designed by Senator Alessandro Segni (scholar, secretary to the Accademia della Crusca, admired man of letters and tutor to Francesco). The fresco in the hall depicts the various stages in human life and its consequences (either rewards or punishments); the scenes represent human beings engaged in diverse activities, the personifications of the four seasons, and mythological figures against a natural background.Segni's main source of inspiration for the iconography of these scenes were the so-called Tabulae Cebetis (an anonymous Greek poem on the history of humankind relying on a complex set of symbols and allegories) and the iconographic repertoires by Cesare Ripa, Giovanni Andrea Alciati, and Vincenzo Cartari. See C. Acidini Luchinat, La volta della Galleria di Luca Giordano: percorsi terreni, trionfi stellari, in Stanze segrete, exhibition catalogue, Florence, 2005, p. 29. The theme in the library's vault instead is the path to wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. The title of this scene – which was also painted by Luca Giordano (1685) – is “The Mind Understands the Truth”. In comparison with the fresco in the hall, this work is less complex and with a small number of figures, i.e., the personification of Divinity at the top, a naked maiden (the Truth), Theology, the Mind between the Science and the Philosophy at the bottom.See C. Acidini Luchinat, La volta della Galleria di Luca Giordano: percorsi terreni, trionfi stellari, in Stanze segrete, exhibition catalogue, Florence, 2005, pp. 52-54. The underlying meaning is as follows: understanding (which the Riccardi family promotes) allows human beings to raise above their natural state, thus ascending towards the light of truth. The latter is connected both with faith (thanks to Theology) but also with science, which we can reach in our earthly life through research and the use of human intelligence.
Francesco Riccardi also chose the furnishings and the kind of wood to be used for the furniture. To this purpose he hired two Florentine artisans, Tommaso and Giuseppe Stecchi, who had both to provide the wood and build the bookshelves. For the hall where he would give his parties, instead, Francesco had a series of wardrobes come from Rome and placed next to mirrors painted by Anton Domenico Gabbiani, Bartolomeo Bimbi, and Pandolfo Reschi.On the painted mirrors see M. Gregori, Gli specchi dipinti della Galleria Riccardi, in Paragone, XXIII, 1972, 267, pp. 74-82; N. Barbolani di Montauto, Pandolfo Reschi, Florence, 1996, pp. 45-46, n. 107; Bartolomeo Bimbi. Un pittore di piante e animali alla corte dei Medici, eds. S. Meloni Trkulja and L. Tongiorgi Tomasi, Florence, 1998, 64-65.
In 1691 the two rooms inside the library today known as “Sala Esposizione” and “Sala Catalogo” were also painted to continue the decorative program that had until then involved only the most important areas inside the building. In both cases the topic addressed by the frescos is human destiny. The painters entrusted with decorating those rooms were Tommaso Nasini (1663–1746) and his cousin Giuseppe Nicola (1657–1736).Both born in Castel del Piano, they did their apprenticeship in Rome (in the workshop of Ciro Ferri) before moving to Venice. In the last decade of the 17th century Tommaso worked with Giuseppe Nicola not only to decorate Palazzo Riccardi but also Palazzo Pitti and the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Pisa. The rich and complex frame surrounding their frescos in Palazzo Medici Riccardi was painted in those same years by Francesco Sacconi. The fresco in the Sala Esposizione is known as “Hercules at the Crossroads” (or “Hercules in the Garden of the Hesperides”), while the one in the Sala Catalogo shows “Jove Striking the Giants with His Thunderbolt”.See S. Meloni Trkulja, Una galassia di pittori, in Stanze segrete, exhibition catalogue, Florence, 2005, p. 113.
The Biblioteca Riccardiana was further enlarged in the second half of the 18th century, after the subdeacon Gabriello Riccardi (1705–1798) purchased more real estate property in 1786. A true bibliophile, Gabriello commissioned – in neoclassical style – what is now the director's office, which he dedicated to the Muses and Minerva. Allusions to classical culture can also be seen in the ceiling corners, whose four painted cameos hint at ancient works in semiprecious stones with portraits of famous philosophers and poets such as Cicero, Virgil, Homer, and Plato. The imposing bookshelves covering the walls on both levels of the director's office and the adjacent Sala Esposizione also date from those same years; access to the second floor is through a stairway placed behind a revolving set of bookshelves.
When the Riccardi went bankrupt in the early 19th century the family library and the museum were auctioned. In view of the auction, a catalogue (titled Inventario e stima della Libreria Riccardi) was published in 1810 and circulated both in Italy and in the main cities north of the Alps.Inventario e stima della Libreria Riccardi, available online in PDF format at riccardiana.firenze.sbn.it Two years later, at the auction, a group of bookdealers (Piatti, Pagani, Todini, and Casini) bought the whole library collection for 98,000 “franchi.” They soon tried to sell it to the City of Florence for 130,000 “franchi.” Eventually an agreement was reached for 110,000 “franchi” to be paid within three years’ time. Having received permission to spend this sum from the Ministry of Interior Affairs, on April 29, 1813, the city council announced that the library had been purchased.