Biblioteca Mozzi Borgetti

Macerata's Mozzi Borgetti Library opened in 1787 in the former Jesuit college. Its historic rooms contain decorated ceilings and shelving, while its collections include manuscripts, incunabula and the library of the Castiglioni family, relatives of Pope Pius VIII.

Why it matters

After the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773, the commune acquired the college and established a public library. The Mozzi brothers and the Dominican Tommaso Maria Borgetti contributed important collections, later joined by further donations and bequests. The library preserves books and documents central to the history of Macerata and the surrounding region.

What to notice

The Sale Antiche have neoclassical decoration directed by Vincenzo Martini, with frescoes of the Sun, Aurora and Divine Wisdom. Shelving and inlay work are associated with Domenico Antonio Pianesi, Giuseppe Ciferri and Bernardino Consalvi. Medallions of emperors of Helvia Ricina were painted by Serafino Scarponi and Costanzo Alberti. The Galleria degli Specchi has grotesque decoration by Domenico Marzapani and Domenico Cervini, while the former oratory's vault was frescoed by Giuseppe Mattei.

The collections include around 350,000 to 400,000 volumes, more than 10,000 manuscripts and about 300 incunabula. The Castiglioni family library, received in 1935, added approximately 20,000 volumes. The Radiciotti-Spadoni music collection documents musicians of the Marche.

Context and history

A hospice of the Knights of Jerusalem stood on this site before the Jesuits received the college in the sixteenth century. The Jesuits ran a school here, where Matteo Ricci studied, and rebuilt the premises after a structural collapse in 1680. Following the order's suppression in 1773, the commune obtained the college and opened the public library on 31 March 1787, with the Jesuit library's five thousand volumes as its core.

The Mozzi brothers donated books in 1789, and Borgetti's bequest of 9,176 volumes arrived in 1833; the collections were united in 1855. Later additions included the books and manuscripts of Amico Ricci and the Castiglioni library. The building also housed other civic institutions, including an early universal museum and the first home of the civic picture gallery. It remains Macerata's principal public library.