Library

The Leopardi Library owes its existence above all to the work of Monaldo, the poet’s father, who began collecting books when he was a young man and managed in a relatively short time to build up a collection that was exceptional for its time. Giacomo studied here together with his siblings Carlo and Paolina, under the attentive and loving guidance of their father. The library was the core around which much of the family life was organized: a kind of incessant and inevitable conquest of study over all other family activities.

In 1812, Monaldo’s idea of creating and organizing a library for his children grew to such an extent that the founder decided to open his library to his friends and above all to the citizens of Recanati, as the plaque in the second room still reads:

FILIIS AMICIS CIVIBVS MONALDVS DE LEOPARDIS BIBLIOTHECAM ANNO MDCCCXII

The opening of the library was also confirmed by the founder in his will, where he wrote that he had collected all the works “with great care and effort, not only for the benefit and convenience of [his] descendants, but also for the profit and good of [his] fellow citizens of Recanati ”. He also wrote: “The firstborn pro tempore will have to open it from time to time for the public convenience of the citizens, according to their prudence and discretion”.

The current itinerary does not fully reflect the original one, but was dictated by the need to comply with current security regulations. However, the location of the 20,000 volumes that make up the library has remained unchanged since its foundation, as attested by the catalogue sheets compiled by Monaldo and his sons.