National Library of the University of Turin

The National Library of the University of Turin is one of the largest Italian libraries located at Piazza Carlo Alberto. There are thousands of books of great cultural and historical value.

The library was founded in 1723 by Vittorio Amadeo II of Savoy, who combined the library of the University of Turin and the library of the Dukes of Savoy. From the middle of the XVIII to the beginning of the XIX century, a huge number of books and manuscripts were brought here from everywhere, as a result of which the library collected an amazing collection of books in many disciplines. In addition, thanks to a special law (diritto di stampa), the library had the right to receive one copy of each new book published in the country. In 1873 the library became a national library. At that time, it housed 250,000 volumes of 4 2 manuscripts and countless different periodicals.

On January 26, 1904, a fire broke out in the library, destroying half of all manuscripts, many of which were extremely rare, and about 30,000 books. During World War II, the library building was completely destroyed. The new building was built on the site of the old stable, of which only the facade remained. Currently, the library has about 1 million books of 3.7 thousand manuscripts and 1.6 thousand incunabulas. Among them, of particular interest is the Codex-K, the Gospel of Mark and Matthew, written in the IV-V centuries.