The library
The Library
The History Library was created by the unification of the bibliographic holdings of the previous Institute of Medieval and Modern History, of Palaeography and Diplomatics (these were located until 2006 in the Palazzo del Capitanio, 1st floor) and of Religious Sciences (formerly in Via Daniele Manin), which came to form the Department of History, later to become DiSSGeA - Department of History, Geography and Antiquity.
The library's main areas of interest, consolidated over several decades, are Medieval, Modern and Contemporary History, Venetian History, History of Christianity, Ancient Christian Literature, Palaeography, Archival and Library Science.
More recently, other subject areas have become important in the teaching of History and Historical Sciences degree courses, such as Cultural Anthropology, History of Women and Gender, History of the Mediterranean, History of America, Global History, Mobility Studies and History of Eastern European Countries.
Since 2001, it has occupied the premises of Palazzo Luzzatto Dina along Via del Vescovado, a historic building in the city centre inherited by the University of Padua from Marquise Augusta Luzzatto Dina, widow Buzzaccarini.
The History Library, together with the Philosophy, Sciences of Antiquity Art Music Liviano and Beato Pellegrino Libraries, is part of Polo Umanistico, created in 2018 by merging the pre-existing Humanities Pole and Beato Pellegrino Pole.
The building
The building was the main Paduan residence of the Selvatico family for over three centuries. The first properties in the Duomo district, today's Via del Vescovado, were purchased in 1406 by Antonio Selvatico. The estate was increased by his descendants, in particular in 1553 when Bartolomeo Selvatico obtained a house belonging to the canons of the Cathedral, which had once been the home of Francesco Petrarca, located behind the palace, along today's via Dietro Duomo, together with the annexed vegetable garden. His brother Girolamo, on the other hand, purchased another property in 1588, on the corner of today's Vicolo Selvatico Estense, corresponding to the current entrance reserved for the staff of the Department in Via del Vescovado, which was definitively incorporated into the main palace.
During the 17th century, by Bartolomeo's two sons, Benedetto, a professor of medicine at the University of Padua, and his brother Giovanni Battista, a professor of canon law, the complex of buildings put together by the Selvatico family over the previous two centuries took on the almost unified appearance still visible today (although the interior façade is not fully completed). These renovations by a late Mannerist architect (the names of Vincenzo Dotto or Giuseppe Viola Zanini have been proposed) were completed for the side facing Via del Vescovado by 1623, the date on the commemorative plaque still present in the entrance hall. The construction of the building at the back, at the end of the courtyard, with an ornamental garden, dates back to this period.
Other works were undertaken by Benedetto's descendants, such as the construction in 1693 of a large hall on the main floor, decorated with stucco work, which is now the reading room of the History Library. In the same years, a utility courtyard was also built with an entrance from Via Dietro Duomo, connected to the main courtyard through the stables, now known as Palazzo Jonoch Gulinelli. Finally, around 1780, Canon Giovanni Andrea Selvatico had a new two-storey appendix built to the north of the palace and renovated some existing rooms, some with stucco decorations and wall paintings, due to scenographic decorators of the time, such as Paolo Guidolini and the Mauro brothers, to whom a room on the ground floor is attributed that is today known as the Room of Perspective Views.
The Selvatico family, well established in the Paduan aristocratic class since 1430, obtained the title of marquis in 1749 by the concession of Duke Francesco III d'Este and the addition of Estense to its surname: from the late 18th century they had as their main residence Palazzo Frigimelica Roberti Montesi in nearby Via Tadi. Pietro Selvatico Estense (1803-1880), art critic, president and teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice and acclaimed architect, decided to sell the palazzo to Beniamino and Pellegrino Dina in 1852.
Augusta Luzzatto Dina
Belonging to the Jewish entrepreneur upper middle class, the Dina family left the palace to the children of their sister Enrichetta, wife of Giacobbe Luzzatto, who took the double surname Luzzatto Dina. The descendant Augusta, who married Marquis Antonio de' Buzzaccarini of an ancient noble Paduan family in 1923, took up permanent residence in the palace in Via del Vescovado, setting up her sculpture atelier in the premises adjacent to the garden and using the pseudonym Galastena.
In memory of her only son Pier Galeazzo Buzzaccarini, who died at a very young age, in her will she left the premises to the University of Padua to make it one of its locations and requested that some of the artistic works she had created be preserved there, and that the place serve the University to ‘inalienably perpetuate the purposes of science and the meeting of cultures’.
Augusta Luzzatto Dina died in 1989; later on, the University of Padua took care of the long restoration of the building and in 2001 it inaugurated the Library.
Finally, in 2006 the Department of History was also moved to Palazzo Luzzatto Dina, which was integrated into DiSSGeA - Department of History, Geography and Antiquity in 2012.