Biblioteca Capitolare Finia

The Biblioteca Capitolare Finia is a chapter library in Gravina in Puglia, founded in 1686 from a bequest by Bishop Domenico Cennini. It holds more than 20,000 volumes, including twelve incunabula, and occupies a purpose-built building completed in 1743.

Why it matters

Cardinal Vincenzo Maria Orsini founded the library as executor of Cennini’s will. Orsini later became Pope Benedict XIII and added books to the collection. The library takes its name from Cardinal Francesco Antonio Finy, whose personal library and gift of 2,000 ducats supported the construction of a permanent home for the books.

What to notice

The building, designed by Donato Giannuzzi of Altamura and completed in 1743, has a facade with corner columns, shell motifs and a volute pediment. A mechanical clock on the exterior bears painted portraits of Vittorio Emanuele II and Giuseppe Garibaldi. The collection includes about 437 sixteenth-century editions, a fourteenth- or fifteenth-century Book of Hours, an illuminated manuscript and sacred and secular music scores. The lower levels preserve remains of the former prisons of the University of Gravina.

Context and history

The library’s collections grew through bequests and donations over several generations. Cennini left his books to the town; Orsini established the institution in 1686, and Finy later endowed it with his collection and funds for the building. An archdeacon’s donation in 1700 added another layer to the holdings. The library preserves a record of the scholarship and religious life of Gravina across several centuries.