Biblioteca Comunale Norberto Turriziani

Frosinone's municipal library occupies Palazzo Turriziani, the house where Norberto Turriziani was born. Named for the law student killed on the Italian front in 1916, it holds the city's historic archive and collections on local life.

Why it matters

Norberto Turriziani died on 18 May 1916 at Cima Campiluzzi during the battle of the Altopiani. In 1939 his father ceded the family home to the city on condition that it house an institution of learning. The library's collections include about 53,000 items, provincial legal-deposit publications received since 1966, and the Archivio Storico Comunale, installed in 2002.

What to notice

Special collections include about nine hundred theses from the Premio Filippo Sacchi, issues of the Gazzetta Ciociaria from 1953 to 1975, and the local Alpine club's CAI collection. Digitised Frosinone periodicals published between 1871 and 1941 preserve a record of the city's press.

Context and history

Frosinone joined Rome's consortium of popular libraries in 1914. Before 1927, a civic library in Palazzo Comunale held about three thousand volumes donated by lawyer Cesare Bragaglia. The Second World War almost completely destroyed the palace and its collection. Rebuilt with Ministry of Public Education funds, the library reopened in 1953. A 1966 decree enrolled it among public libraries receiving a copy of everything published in the province. Renovations moved the holdings to the Istituto Magistrale in Piazza Diamanti in 1987; the library later merged with the provincial library as Biblioteche Associate Alberto Bragaglia. Regional law 42/97 restored its autonomy. In 2002 the restored Palazzo Turriziani reopened with the municipal historic archive alongside the library.