Laurentian Library

The Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana or BML) is a historic library in Florence, Italy, containing more than 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books.^[1] 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.^[1]^[2]^[3]

All of the book-bound manuscripts in the library are identified in its Codex Laurentianus. The library conserves the Nahuatl Florentine Codex, the Rabula Gospels, the Codex Amiatinus, the Squarcialupi Codex, and the fragmentary Erinna papyrus that contains part of her Distaff.

^ ^a ^b Medicean-Laurentian Library. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007.
^ Fazio, Michael; Moffett, Marian; Wodehouse, Lawrence, Buildings across Time (London: Lawrence King Publishing Ltd, 2009), pp. 308–310.
^ Lotz, Wolfgang; Howard, Deborah, Architecture in Italy, 1500–1600 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), pp. 91–94.

[brit-1] Medicean-Laurentian Library. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007.

[build-2] Fazio, Michael; Moffett, Marian; Wodehouse, Lawrence, Buildings across Time (London: Lawrence King Publishing Ltd, 2009), pp. 308–310.

[aii-3] Lotz, Wolfgang; Howard, Deborah, Architecture in Italy, 1500–1600 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), pp. 91–94.

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The Laurentian Library can be identified in the long row of windows above the cloister extending to the left of the photograph; the taller structure with two rows of windows immediately to its right is the vestibule.