Biblioteca comunale di Foligno

The Dante Alighieri Municipal Library in Foligno combines a public library with important historic collections, including manuscripts, incunabula and architectural drawings by Giuseppe Piermarini.

Why it matters

The library preserves Foligno's literary and architectural heritage, including documentation of the city's 1472 printing of the first edition of the Divine Comedy. Its special collections bring together rare books, manuscripts and material connected with the city's cultural history.

What to notice

The collections include 242 incunabula, 712 manuscripts, sixteenth-century editions and antique prints. Giuseppe Piermarini's architectural drawings document the work of the Foligno-born architect. A photographic archive records the city and its territory, while the Divine Comedy collection includes editions, adaptations and commentaries from different periods.

Context and history

The library is named for Dante Alighieri and maintains a documentation collection devoted to the Divine Comedy and its 1472 Foligno edition. Its current premises were built in 1997 to a design by Arrigo Rudi with Domenico Pasquale and Giovanni Tonti. The catalogue has been part of the national library network since 1994.