The history of the Library

The Library was created on the core of the Querini family's book heritage: 1,400 manuscripts, 42 thousand antique printed books, 3,000 engravings, 350 maps and maps, plus the family's private archives.

After 1869, the modern collection of about 400 thousand volumes is added.

"[...] on all those days and hours when the public libraries are closed, and especially in the evening for the convenience of the scholars, who will be placed not in the library, but in a nearby room, beautiful, comfortable, with stoves and carpets for the winter."

"There will be rooms for evening gatherings of learned men and scientists, both domestic and foreign [...]."

"A third part at least of my annual income will be employed in this free Institution of the Reading Cabinet, and evening gatherings of learned men and friends of knowledge, which is now lacking in this City."

Initially intended for scholars, the Reading Cabinet in the early twentieth century was opened as a Library.

Since his arrival in 1905 as the Foundation's librarian and then interim director, Arnaldo Segarizzi who had made the "Querini family library a living instrument for city culture," upgrading the Institute, expanding space, renovating shelving and improving services.

Subsequently, he replaces the previous systematic catalogs with an alphabetical catalog made of cards for authors, subjects, and literary forms, placed inside a special cabinet still visible today.

Manlio Torquato Dazzi continued the work started by Segarizzi and decided, after the Racial Laws of 1938, to retain texts by Jewish authors in the catalog and on the shelves.

The contemporary phase begins with Director Giuseppe Mazzariol placing the Library's cultural and civic promotion function at the center.

In the 1990s, the number of reading stations increased and the opening hours were extended: it became the first library in Venice to close at midnight. In 1979, in agreement with the municipality, it became the civic library of the historic center of the city.

An further development and expansion of the book collection took place in 2018 with the addition of the collection from the Cassa di Risparmio di Venezia.

Among the materials entrusted, stands out the perspective map of Venice "from a bird's eye view" Venetiae MD by Jacopo de' Barbari, along with the copy owned by the Querini family and works by Vincenzo Coronelli, Giambattista Piazzetta, Giandomenico Tiepolo, and many others.