The Biblioteca Berio library

The Biblioteca Civica Berio library is the earliest and most important library in Genoa and the Liguria region. Founded by the abbot, Carlo Giuseppe Vespasiano Berio during the second half of the eighteenth century, it was first opened to the public in via del Campo, then moving to the Campetto square. In 1797, on the abbot’s death, the library was bequeathed to his heirs. In 1817, Francesco Maria Berio donated the library to King Victor Emanuel I, who, in turn, donated it to Genoa . The local authority, or Civica Amministrazione, finally took it over seven years later and added manuscripts and prints of the finest quality to the library’s existing resources. In 1831, the library moved to a palazzo facing the Carlo Felice theatre, where it occupied the principal storey, or piano nobile. It then gradually spread into other rooms as the collections grew, also as a result of bequests. Considerable harm came to the library during the Second World War, and it was once more opened to the public in 1956. In April 1998, it was again transferred, this time to the fully restored former seminary, Seminario dei Chierici, in the heart of the city in the immediate vicinity of Piazza Dante. The Berio library’s information technology resources and generously proportioned halls are frequently placed at the disposal of the organisers of cultural activities , hence, alongside its traditional didactic and scientific activities (general and theme-specific exhibitions, conferences, seminars, book presentations, and publication of periodicals and library bulletins), the library provides a lively venue for other daytime and evening social and cultural events.