Biblioteca dell’Archiginnasio (Palace and Library)
Description
The Palazzo dell’Archiginnasio was built between 1562 and 1563 by the request of Cardinal Carlo Borromeo and of deputy delegate Pier Donato Cesi, based on a project by the Bolognese architect Antonio Morandi (known as Terribilia), with the aim of creating a university campus. The building develops on two floors and is also home to the beautiful Archiginnasio Library. Upstairs there are two large auditoriums located at the far ends of the building, one for the Artists (today the reading room of the Library) and one for the Legists (later called the Stabat Mater room) where meetings, conferences and study days are organized etc. It is impossible not to notice the beautiful anatomical theatre, made of fir wood and in the shape of an amphitheatre, where in 1637 anatomical lessons were held by the Bolognese architect Antonio Paolucci, known as Levanti, a pupil of the Carracci painters. Over the chair, where the professor sat, there is a canopy supported by two statues of naked men without their skin (called “the skinned”), sculpted in 1734 based on a design by Ercole Lelli, a famous wax artist from the Institute of Sciences.
Please note that with a wheelchair you can access the building from the Archaeological Civic Museum. There are several doors for which it is necessary to be accompanied; once inside, the Archiginnasio is completely accessible.
