Old public library and Ancient Fund

The Castiglion Fiorentino Public Library was founded in 1873 after the abolition of the religious corporations. After this abolition, the municipality of Castiglion Fiorentino asked for the government’s permission to take ownership of the libraries in order to avoid sale and dispersion of its documents and manuscripts. Once the libraries were in the municipality’s ownership, the institution of the public library was deliberated with the goal to serve the needs of students and the youth.
The Ancient Room was established by the Scolopiani, Minori Conventuali and Cappuccini libraries. The Ancient Room is composed of 11,800 volumes on law, religion, and philosophy. The Library was originally located in two of the rooms in the Palace of Scolopi and then the City Hall. It then relocated to the Palace of Dragomanni and finally found its final location in the rooms of the Palace of Pretorio in 1999. The first librarian, in 1873, was Sir Giuseppe Ghizzi, author of the first book History of Castiglion Fiorentino.
During the years, the Castiglion Fiorentino Public Library acquired more rooms such as the Ghizzi Room and is now composed of an important quantity of manuscripts, prints, original documents, and copies. There is also the Serristori Room, where one can find many works such as two antiphonaries from the XIII century, incunabula, and books of the 1500’s. The Valdarnini Room was donated to the municipality by the well-known professor of philosophy’s heirs. The Tafi Room includes all of Monsignor Angelo Tafi’s library volumes. And finally, the Salvemini Room contains a precious volume collection about jurisprudence which covers the time span from the XV century to the XVIII century.