Verona is in the Guinnes World Records

Did you know that the Biblioteca Capitolare, the Library of the Chapter of Verona, is the oldest still functioning library in the word? It has been operating without any interruption for over 15 centuries.

Originally, it was founded as a Scriptorium, a sort of writing laboratory, dedicated to the production of parchment books for the education and spiritual training of the future clergymen.

The library’s holding survived wars, natural calamities such as the floods of River Adige, and consists of over a million manuscripts dating from the 4th to the 19th century.

The most precious treasures are the book signed by the scribe Ursicinus, first written evidence ot the Scriptorium’s exhistence, and the famous “Riddle of Verona”, first written evidence of Italian language (which comes from spoken Latin and evolved through changes, distortions and influences of other languages).

Tha Capitolare was attended by illustrious men like the Italian poets Francesco Petrarca and most certainly also Dante Alighieri during his long stay in Verona.

On January, 4th 1945 the main hall was accidentally hit by a bomb of the Allies: both ceiling with frescoes and entrance staircase were completely destroyed, while the most precious items such as manuscripts, incunabula, illustrated and rare books were luckily saved because they had been previosly moved to a secure place, in a small village on the mountains near Verona.

The Library and the nearby Museo Canonicale are now open to visits thanks to the Foundation www.bibliotecacapitolare.org. We recommend you booking a guided tour to learn a lot of things about the fascinating world of books and to admire them closely.