Biblioteca Comunale Francesco Trinchera Senior

Ostuni's municipal library was founded in 1868, when the town council brought together books from four suppressed monastic libraries. Named for the Ostuni-born archivist Francesco Trinchera Senior, it preserves historic books, manuscripts, maps and local periodicals.

Why it matters

The library brings together collections from the Carmelite, Riformati, Capuchin and Conventual Franciscan houses. A circulating library for students followed in 1871. Its holdings form a documentary counterpart to Ostuni's museums, preserving the city's written and archival memory.

What to notice

The Fondo Antico includes twelve incunabula and about 150 sixteenth-century editions. Other holdings include unpublished manuscripts, geographic and topographic maps—including a copy of the Tabula Peutingeriana and two cabrei of the Order of Malta—and a periodical collection that includes nineteenth-century Ostuni newspapers.

Context and history

The collection moved between several homes, including the Seminary and the Riformati convent. During the Second World War, books suffered severe losses after being stored in a damp basement. The library returned to Palazzo Municipale in 1959–60 and moved to purpose-built premises in November 1996. Its namesake, Francesco Trinchera Senior (1810–1874), was an Ostuni-born archivist and palaeographer who became the first superintendent of the Great Archive of Naples.