ROME - A book heritage of about 400 thousand volumes, including incunabula, sixteenth and seventeenth century, 3,500 periodicals, 20,700 units of graphic material such as engravings, drawings, photographs, about 2000 theatrical posters, 66,000 microfiche, 400 cd-roms, about 1,600 manuscript works and over 100,000 papers from archival collections: it is the treasure kept in the State Public Library of Archeology and History of Art, historically housed in the Palazzo Venezia in Rome, which will now find its home in a more functional space in Palazzo San Felice, in via della Dataria, a stone's throw from the Quirinale. A place that will become a pole of attraction for the entire city, thanks to the integrated offer of services and activities (exhibitions, concerts, readings, events, etc.),and to the enhancement of the historical-artistic and archaeological heritage and of the bibliographic one.
The Quirinale, in the presence of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, hosted the ceremony for the start of the works of the new National Library of Archeology and History of Art (BiASA), with the interventions of the Minister of Culture, Dario Franceschini, in video link , the architect Mario Botta, the general secretary of the 'Giorgio Cini' Foundation, Renata Codello, and the director of the State Property Agency, Alessandra Dal Verme. "I am very happy that these works can be started before the end of my seven-year term. It is a great cultural operation that will give Rome, in a central context, a dynamic place of study that looks to the future", underlined Mattarella.
"We immediately believed in this project: the ministry is committed to finding resources and supporting the Quirinale", noted Franceschini - in preventive quarantine for a contact with a positive - speaking of "a great message to the country: Palazzo San Felice will become a stupendous place, not only for conservation or consultation for scholars, but for life, activities, meetings, study and research events, open to the city. It is a huge operation ", concluded the minister, thanking Mattarella" for the gesture towards Rome and the whole country ". The project was born in 2016, when the President of the Republic, assessed the interest in the public use of the Palazzo San Felice as prevalent,supplied to the Presidency and used as a service accommodation for the staff of the General Secretariat, it decided to change its use and transform it into a cultural site of general interest. On January 16, 2017, the Presidency of the Republic and the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism signed a Memorandum of Understanding to verify the feasibility of the project for the transfer, to Palazzo San Felice, of the library holdings of the Library - born in 1875 as a collection of books annexed to the Direction of Excavations and Museums, the only one among the 46 state public libraries specialized in art history and archeology - in order to ensure more adequate space for this heritage, which has grown over the decades.use and transform it into a cultural site of general interest. On January 16, 2017, the Presidency of the Republic and the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism signed a Memorandum of Understanding to verify the feasibility of the project for the transfer of the library holdings of the Library to Palazzo San Felice - born in 1875 as a collection of books annexed to the Direction of Excavations and Museums, the only one among the 46 state public libraries specialized in art history and archeology - in order to ensure more adequate space for this heritage, which has grown over the decades.use and transform it into a cultural site of general interest. On January 16, 2017, the Presidency of the Republic and the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism signed a Memorandum of Understanding to verify the feasibility of the project for the transfer of the library holdings of the Library to Palazzo San Felice - born in 1875 as a collection of books annexed to the Direction of Excavations and Museums, the only one among the 46 state public libraries specialized in art history and archeology - in order to ensure more adequate space for this heritage, which has grown over the decades.On January 16, 2017, the Presidency of the Republic and the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism signed a Memorandum of Understanding to verify the feasibility of the project for the transfer of the library holdings of the Library to Palazzo San Felice - born in 1875 as a collection of books annexed to the Direction of Excavations and Museums, the only one among the 46 state public libraries specialized in art history and archeology - in order to ensure more adequate space for this heritage, which has grown over the decades.On January 16, 2017, the Presidency of the Republic and the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism signed a Memorandum of Understanding to verify the feasibility of the project for the transfer of the library holdings of the Library to Palazzo San Felice - born in 1875 as a collection of books annexed to the Direction of Excavations and Museums, the only one among the 46 state public libraries specialized in art history and archeology - in order to ensure more adequate space for this heritage, which has grown over the decades.art and archeology - in order to ensure more adequate spaces for this heritage, which has grown over the decades.art and archeology - in order to ensure more adequate spaces for this heritage, which has grown over the decades.
The transformation project of Palazzo San Felice was signed by the architect Mario Botta and donated to the presidency of the Republic and provides for a financial commitment, all to be borne by the MiC, of 20 million euros. It develops in a total of 8000 square meters. between internal and external spaces and aims to create not only a Library, but a cultural pole: in the floors of Palazzo San Felice and in the various annexed bodies, reading rooms, offices, warehouses, technical rooms, exhibition areas, an external space for events will be obtained , welcome, bar and restaurant service. There will be 14 kilometers of shelf development to accommodate 400,000 volumes.
Among the elements of the project of the "Mario Botta Architetti" studio, the main courtyard designed as a "public square" overlooked by the additional services such as the bar and the bookshop and which can be accessed from Via della Dataria; the courtyard adjacent to the main one which, transformed into a covered space with a transparent cover, becomes a multipurpose room at the service of cultural activities to be carried out in the entire complex; the preparation of offices, warehouses, reading rooms and an area dedicated to exhibitions and shows. Furthermore, the historical-artistic and archaeological enhancement of the monumental complex and its ancient evidences is foreseen. The complex of Palazzo San Felice,it is in fact a highly stratified historical place that preserves pre-existences ranging from the 2nd-1st century BC up to the modern era.