Libraries

LIBRARY OF MUSEO CIVICO DI PALAZZO CHIERICATI

The Library of Museo Civico di Palazzo Chiericati mainly collects books related to the works of the Museum, as well as specialist magazines, both discontinued and current. It also includes the Rumor Fund, donated by Abbot Sebastiano, and the Numismatics Fund, which also includes books donated by Ettore Scarpa. The first is made up of ancient books, from the 15th century to 1930, and consists of 4,000 titles including books and pamphlets. The preciousness and specificity of the collection lies in the fact that it is composed of book material by authors or subjects from Vicenza, arranged in containers divided by subject. It is thanks to this Fund that the Abbot was able to draw up the Historical Bibliography of the city and province of Vicenza, published in 1916, considered a pioneering tool for having anticipated cataloguing by subject. The Rumor Collection is currently kept at Museo Naturalistico Archeologico, and can be consulted by appointment.

The Numismatic Collection is ancient and consists of 160 book units, a precious reference, by type and subject, for scholars in the sector.

It is an Institute library, which can still be consulted by the public, by appointment.

Following the restoration work of Palazzo Chiericati, the Library was moved to Contrà Santa Corona 6, but is currently not accessible to the public.

For information and appointments: museocivico@comune.vicenza.it

LIBRARY OF MUSEO NATURALISTICO ARCHEOLOGICO

The Library of the Museo Naturalistico Archeologico includes a naturalistic section with more than 2,000 books and an archaeological section with over 500 titles. There are also numerous specialist magazines, both discontinued and in existence. Currently, there are about forty in exchange. This Institute library can be consulted by the public by appointment. Rumor Library can also be consulted by appointment; it contains almost all the texts relating to the history, art, archaeology and naturalistic aspects of Vicenza and its territory up to the beginning of the 20th century.

For information and appointments: museonatarcheo@comune.vicenza.it

LIBRARY OF MUSEO DEL RISORGIMENTO E DELLA RESISTENZA

The Library preserves collections of books and magazines of a historical nature concerning themes and topics of the Napoleonic, Risorgimento and war periods of the First and Second World Wars. Consultation by the public is possible by appointment (in the morning from Monday to Friday, Tuesday and Thursday also afternoon, at times to be agreed). Tel. 0444 222820.

For information and appointments: museorisorgimento@comune.vicenza.it

HISTORICAL ARCHIVES OF MUSEI CIVICI DI VICENZA

The historical archive of Musei Civici di Vicenza is still preserved today at Palazzo Chiericati, purchased in 1839 by the Municipality of Vicenza thanks to the precious bequests of deserving citizens to become the prestigious home for the rich art collections donated since the early decades of the 19th century. The management of the many collections, which had been brought together in the Palladian Palace, restored and opened to the public in 1855, was entrusted to a Commission, specifically created as early as 1834, which became definitive with the name of Commission for the Conservation of National Things in 1845. This body had the task of preserving “the art gallery, the drawings and autographed writings, the engravings, the numismatics, the marbles, the sculptures and the ruins of the Berga Theatre, the natural history and the physics cabinet”. The inventory of the collection ideally ends in the 1980s, coinciding with the death of the then director Gino Barioli (1982). A section of the archive produced by the “Provincial Commission for the Conservation of the Monuments of Vicenza” was also found in Palazzo Chiericati. The Commission, established in the city of Vicenza in the second half of the 19th century, had its headquarters at the Prefecture, with the prefect being the president by right. This section of the collection, which covers only the chronological period 1908-1915, coincides with the period in which Giovanni da Schio (1875-1947) was secretary. He was elected in 1908 but resigned in December 1914, having become an “officer of the royal army”. The documentation produced in the exercise of this role, directly appointed by the minister, by the then Museum Director Luigi Ongaro (1866-1950), the Museum Curator Antonio Marco Dalla Pozza (1900-1967), and by Gastone Trevisiol (1909-1944), a well-known speleologist active in Vicenza area who died during the Second World War, is also preserved, grouped together in an autonomous collection called “Ispettori Onorari”.

The inventory of the historical archive of Museo Civico di Palazzo Chiericati, curated by Manuela Barausse, was funded by Fondazione Giuseppe Roi Onlus in 2020.

The archive inventory has been published in the XII volume of the Museum's Scientific Catalogues, which can be downloaded for free here in pdf format, and can also be consulted online in the Bertoliana Library Archives Portal.

The archive documents are not currently available in the original, but for any information, reproductions and advice, please write to museocivico@comune.vicenza.it