The library

Location

The Library is located in the sixteenth-century building of the Botanical Garden, in the rooms where the prefect resided during his mandate. Even now in the Venetian floors or in the old fireplace no longer in use, you can glimpse the history of a house that has seen so many illustrious people.

Botany Section

Having always existed as part of the personal heritage of the prefects, the Botanical Garden's library became part of the University's heritage on 12 February 1835 when the prefect Giuseppe Antonio Bonato -  a doctor, botanist, but also a former librarian - decided to provide the Garden with a permanent library so that “it would return to the perpetual decorum of that illustrious establishment and to the benefit of all those who dedicate themselves to that science”.
The book collection donated by Bonato also included that of his predecessor Giovanni Marsili, a passionate and eclectic bibliophile who had collected precious books on the most diverse subjects from all over the world and which still today constitutes the oldest book collection.
Over the years, the library was enriched with other valuable donations and acquisitions: the books of Roberto De Visiani, the precious Saccardo collection, the Achille Forti algological collection, and the Alessandro Trotter cecidological collection.

The library follows the times and under the direction of Prefect Giuseppe Gola (1921-1947) accompanies the modernization of the botanical garden with a profound restructuring, mostly sending the volumes that were no longer considered suitable for modern botany to the University Library and dividing the holdings by subject with the still existing location sections in the historical part. 
Since 2002, the library has been managed by the CAB and conforms to the University Library Service Charter and participates in the online catalogue and heritage enhancement projects such as exhibitions, digital collections, and even educational activities for schools.

Medical Section

The library originates from the testamentary bequest of Vincenzo Pinali (1802-1875), a professor of clinical medicine, who earmarked his books and the substantial sum of 100,000 lire for the foundation of the library. Pinali thus intended to endow the Medical School, which had moved from Palazzo del Bo to the suppressed convent of San Mattia in 1873, with a modern specialized library that would evolve to meet the study and research needs of the medical-scientific community.
The buildings of San Mattia housed the library from its opening in 1878/79 until the early 20th century and were demolished after the First World War (1914-1918) to make room for a complex designed by Guido Fondelli, home to the Anatomical Institutes and, until 2023, also the  Biblioteca Pinali Antica.
Between 1875 and 1953 the Library acquired the books of Vincenzo Malacarne (1779-1832) from the Malacarne family, received as a gift the library of the noble Fanzago family, the book collections of Tito Vanzetti (1809-1888), Augusto Tebaldi (1833-1895), Achille De Giovanni (1838-1916), Luigi Lucatello (1863-1926), Napoleone D'Ancona (1842-1933), Achille Breda (1850-1934), Nicola Badaloni (1854-1945) and Virgilio Ducceschi (1871-1952).
In 1962-63, the modern collections were transferred to the University Hospital. Thus sanctioning the separation of the Library into two sections: the modern section, for medical students and professors, and the ancient section, intended for the conservation, use and valorization of the historical heritage.

The new Pinali – Marsili library

With the transfer of the historical medical and anatomy collections of the ‘Vincenzo Pinali’ Medical Library to the Botanical Garden, the new Vincenzo Pinali and Giovanni Marsili Historical Library of Medicine and Botany was created in 2023. It brings together the University's two largest ancient bibliographic nuclei, highlighting the original close connection between the history of botany and medicine.