Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana — library building
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Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana

  • 1 min read
  • 43.775° N 11.255° E

Interesting facts

  • Mark Rothko said the vestibule and staircase walls of the library influenced his 1959 Seagram murals.
  • Michelangelo first imagined the staircase in walnut, but Cosimo I had Ammannati build it in grey pietra serena stone instead.
  • The vestibule columns appear to rest on small corbels, a deliberate trick that makes heavy stone seem carried by weak supports.
  • The original Medici collection of about 3,000 manuscripts and books was rebound in red leather with the family arms and kept chained at the reading desks, called plutei.
  • The carved wooden ceiling was made by Giovanni Battista del Tasso shortly before 1550, following Michelangelo's drawings.
  • The red and white terracotta floor was inlaid from 1548 by Santi Buglioni to a design by Tribolo.
  • The stained-glass windows, designed by Giorgio Vasari and made by Flemish craftsmen, carry Medici heraldry.
  • The library holds about 2,500 papyri, a collection unusual among Italian libraries, along with 43 ostraca.
  • Among its manuscripts are the Vergilius Mediceus, a late 5th-century copy of Virgil, and autographs by Petrarch and Boccaccio.
  • It also keeps the Littera Florentina, a 6th-century manuscript of Justinian's Digest, the core text of Roman law.

Why it is worth it

The Laurentian Library begins with a shock: a tall, narrow vestibule where columns are sunk into the walls, windows are blind, and a great staircase seems to pour down from the reading room like lava. Designed by Michelangelo for the Medici, it is one of the founding works of Mannerist architecture, a building that bends the classical rules on purpose.

Pope Clement VII, born Giulio de' Medici, commissioned the library in 1523 to house the family's collection of manuscripts and to show that the Medici were patrons of learning as well as bankers. Michelangelo designed it above the cloister of the church of San Lorenzo, and building began in 1525. When he left Florence for good in 1534, only the walls of the reading room stood; the work was completed by Tribolo, Giorgio Vasari and Bartolomeo Ammannati, following his drawings and instructions. Ammannati built the staircase in 1559 from a clay model sent by Michelangelo: its central flight has curved, oval treads, and it splits into three flights as it descends. The library opened in 1571.

The vestibule measures about 10.5 metres square and nearly 15 metres high, framed in grey pietra serena against white plaster. Beyond it, the reading room stretches more than 46 metres, lined with wooden benches whose backs serve as desks for the next row, beneath a carved ceiling mirrored by a terracotta floor. The library holds around 11,000 manuscripts and 2,500 papyri, including the Codex Amiatinus, the earliest surviving complete Latin Vulgate Bible, the Florentine Codex on Aztec life, and the Rabbula Gospels.

Florence, the cradle of the Renaissance, has a historic centre inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site; the San Lorenzo complex was the Medici family's own church and burial place.

Getting there

The library is at the San Lorenzo complex in central Florence, under 1 km from the city centre and a short walk from Santa Maria Novella station. The nearest airport is Florence Peretola (FLR), about 6 km away.

Plan your visit

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Nearby places

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Florence 18The Most Beautiful Places in Tuscany 37The Most Beautiful Places in Italy 279The Most Beautiful Buildings in Tuscany 7The Most Beautiful Libraries 27The Most Beautiful Buildings in Italy 30The Most Beautiful Buildings 286

From the encyclopaedia

The Laurentian Library is a historic library in Florence, Italy, containing more than 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books. Built in a cloister of the Medicean Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze under the patronage of the Medici pope Clement VII, the library was built to emphasize that the Medici were no longer just merchants but members of intelligent and ecclesiastical society. It contains the manuscripts and books belonging to the private library of the Medici family. The library building is renowned for its architecture that was designed by Michelangelo and is an example of Mannerism.

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