http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/sandamichaela-1824698-firenze-biblioteca-medicea-laurenziana1/

The Basilica di San Lorenzo is one of the largest churches of Florence, Italy, situated at the centre of the city’s main market district, and the burial place of all the principal members of the Medici family from Cosimo il Vecchio to Cosimo III. The church is part of a larger monastic complex that contains other important architectural works: the Old Sacristy by Brunelleschi; the Laurentian Library by Michelangelo; the New Sacristy based on Michelangelos designs; and the Medici Chapels by Matteo Nigetti.

From the cloister you can reach the Medici library, also known as the Bibliotheca Laurenziana or Laurentian LibraryIn 1523 Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici, the later pope Clement VII, commissioned Michelangelo with the design of the library. Construction started in 1525 but Michelangelo left Florence in 1534 and the library was completed by several architects who followed Michelangelo's design. One of the most original designs, a large staircase in the vestibule, was built by Ammannati in 1559. The reading room contains two sections of benches, also designed by Michelangelo.

The library owns an impressive selection of historic manuscripts and books originally collected by Cosimo the Elder and later expanded by other members of the Medici family. The collection includes invaluable items such as the 8th century Codex Amiatinus (a bible) and the oldest version of the Naturalis Historia, a Roman encyclopedia. In 1571, Cosimo I de' Medici opened the library to the public.

The staircase leads up to the reading room and takes up half of the floor of the vestibule. The treads of the center flights are convex and vary in width, while the outer flights are straight.

The three lowest steps of the central flight are wider and higher than the others, almost like concentric oval slabs. As the stairway descends, it divides into three flights

Sta

irca

se in

th

e V

est

ibu

le

The vestibule, also known as the ricetto, is 19.50 m long, 20.30 m wide, and 14.6 m tall

The vestibule was built above existing monastic quarters on the east range of the cloister, with an entrance from the upper level of the cloisters. Originally, Michelangelo had planned for a skylight, but the Clement VII believed that it would cause the roof to leak, so clerestory windows were incorporated into the west wall.

Blank tapering windows––framed in pietra serena, surmounted by either triangular or segmental pediments, and separated by paired columns set into the wall––circumscribe the interior of the vestibule

Th

e s

ple

nd

id s

tain

ed

-gla

ss w

ind

ow

s in

th

e

Ve

stib

ule

The Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana) is a historical library containing a repository of more than 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books. Built in the cloister of the Medicean Basilica di San Lorenzo under the patronage of the Medici pope, Clement VII, the Library was built to emphasize that the Medici family were no longer mere merchants but members of intelligent and ecclesiastical society. It contains the manuscripts and books belonging to the private library of the Medici family.

Biblioteca Laurenziana is the library whose core collection comprised the manuscripts collected by Cosimo the Elder (1389-1464) with the help of some of the most famous humanists of the time. This collection grew considerably under Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-1492) and was opened to the public, according to the statesman's wishes, by his nephew, Giulio (1478-1534) who ascended the papal throne as Clement VII (1523).

Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana view from Il chiostro

The Reading Room, which unlike the Vestibule develops horizontally, hosts two series of wooden benches, the so-called plutei, which functioned as lecterns as well as book-shelves. They were designed by Michelangelo and, according to Giorgio Vasari, work of Giovan Battista del Cinque and Ciapino. The collection once kept here is unique for its philological and artistic value. The manuscripts and printed books lied horizontally on the lecterns and on the shelves and were distributed by subject (Patristics, Astronomy, Rhetoric, History, Poetry, Philosophy, Geography Grammar,);

the wooden panels placed on one side of each bench listed the titles of the items chained therein. This display was maintained until the beginning of the 20th century, when the manuscripts (the printed books were given to the Magliabechiana Library, now Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze in 1783) were transferred downstairs, in the vaults were they are still housed.

The floor, in red and white terracotta was realised from 1548 by Santi Buglioni according to a design by Tribolo. Its centre echoes the ornamental and symbolic designs found in the ceiling, which allude to the Medici dynasty.

Always according to Vasari, the

linden ceiling was carved in 1549-1550 by

Giovan Battista del Tasso and

Antonio di Marco di Giano (also known as

'Il Carota'), following earlier

drawings by Michelangelo.

The Reading Room

The splendid stained-glass windows, which were the last part of the Library to be accomplished, display an ornamental array of Medici heraldry referring to Clement VII ( 1478-1534) and Cosimo I (1519-1574). Possibly realised by a Flemish workshop in keeping with Giorgio Vasari's drawings, the refined decorations combine grotesque motifs, arms and emblems.

The Rotunda was added to the original library planned by Michelangelo in the first half of the 19th century in order to house the rich book collection, once belonging to the Florentine bibliophile and scholar Angelo Maria D'Elci (Florence 1754 - Vienna 1824), to the Laurenziana in 1818. The Rotunda was inaugurated in 1841 and has been the Library's Reading Room until the 1970's. Nowadays the D'Elci collection is kept elsewhere - in conditions more suitable for conservation purposes - and the room is employed for seminars, meetings and inaugurations.

Sound: Andrea Bocelli - Canto Della Terra

Text: Internet

Pictures: Internet

Daniela Iacob

Andrei TischlerCopyright: All the images belong to their authors

Presentation: Sanda Foi oreanuşwww.slideshare.net/michaelasanda