The Malatestiana Library, Italy

The Malatestiana Library is a public library in Cesena, Italy. Cesena is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, south of Ravenna and west of Rimini. It is at the foot of the Apennine Mountains, and about 15 kilometers from the Adriatic Sea. The Malatestiana Library was the first public collection of books in Europe to belong to the community, rather than to the church. It was designed in the 1400s by the Italian architect Matteo Nuti, a pupil of the famed architect and humanist Leon Battista Alberti. It was named in honor of Domenico Malatesta, also known as Malatesta Novello, an Italian military leader who sponsored it. The Malatestas were an important Italian family, and in the library is a carved image of an elephant, a symbol for the family, with words in Latin meaning: The Indian elephant is not afraid of mosquitoes. This means that the Malatesta family saw themselves as giants, like elephants, and anyone who opposed them was a small annoyance, like a mosquito. Because the books were owned by the city of Cesena, they were kept in one place, unlike other libraries of the time. Malatesta had come up with this idea, as well as other basic elements of its planning and structure, some of which were later used in the modern concept of the public library. After its founder died, the library continued to receive donations of books, from his doctor, among others, and the collection was preserved by the city and religious authorities. Due to being almost 600 years old and having precious treasures, the library was included in the Memory of the World Programme Register in 2005 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This was the first UNESCO Memory of the World site in Italy. The Malatestiana Library specializes in the humanities and general information, with many manuscripts and rare books.  There are medical texts and works about the sciences, as well as literature and philosophy. Today the collection has over 400,000 books including almost 300 early printed books dating from before the year 1500. It has more than 3,000 books printed in the 1500s and over 300 old handwritten books, many with beautifully hand-painted images. It even houses the personal library of a pope, Pius VII, who died in the early 1800s.

There are also prints and drawings, periodicals, and a section for young readers. Part of the library design is 29 rows of wooden desks where readers sat while examining handwritten books that are chained to the desk, to make sure they are not taken away. There is also a special collection of books by authors who were born in Cesena. They include Jacopo Mazzoni, a philosopher and friend of the scientist Galileo Galilei, the astronomer Scipione Chiaramonti who exchanged ideas with other astronomers, including Galileo and Johannes Kepler, and the philosopher Giuseppe Verzaglia. In 2002 the library was renovated and expanded.

In 2014 a scientific article appeared in Energy and Buildings, an international journal publishing articles with explicit links to energy use in buildings. Heritage buildings and historic microclimate without HVAC technology: Malatestiana Library in Cesena, Italy, UNESCO Memory of the World was written by Dr. Kristian Fabbri and Dr. Marco Pretelli, both professors in the Department of Architecture, University of Bologna, Italy. The article discussed how heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), the technology of indoor and vehicular environmental comfort, was never part of the Malatestiana Library for almost 600 years. This may be one reason why it has been so relatively well preserved over time. Historic buildings that do not have HVAC may survive better over centuries in the Italian climate. Simply by opening and closing windows, the library staff managed to air out the building in a way that helped the collection, and the building has never changed its purpose over the years:

Abstract

In the assessment of the indoor microclimate of heritage buildings, the general goal is to evaluate and improve users’ comfort. In our opinion the comfort of users should not come first; the approach should be: “Heritage First”, with priority given to the creation of the best microclimate conditions for the preservation of buildings, artefacts, etc. The case study described in this paper concerns an authentic exemplar: the Malatestiana Library in Cesena, Italy, listed in the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme. The indoor microclimatic conditions are exemplary because, since the year of its construction in 1454, its function as a library has remained unchanged: conserving the original book rests, same manuscripts and – most extraordinarily – the same indoor microclimatic conditions. The building does not have HVAC, never. Our hypothesis is that the lack of HVAC has allowed a perfect conservation of the book rests and of the manuscripts. In this paper we describe the results of the monitoring campaign; of how our research led to the discovery that microclimatic parameters change over a long period, as a result of simply opening windows to change the air, involving water vapour and CO2 variation within the air volume of Library.

Thailand and Italy

Just a few days ago, Thai sports fans were thinking about Italy when Thailand’s popular volleyball team beat Italy in the FIVB World Grand Prix. Apart from such triumphs, film fans may have noted that earlier this month on the website of the Italian Embassy in Bangkok, a competition for short films lasting only 90 seconds was announced, for Thai and Italian filmmakers of all ages. Films should be on the theme of Color of Italy, and the top three will also receive cash prizes. Others will be shown before screenings of the Italian Film Festival Bangkok 2017 in September. The Italian Film Festival Bangkok is part of a year-long series of events presented by the Italian Embassy. Remaining events from now until the end of the year range from jazz concerts to a performance of works by the Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi by the lute player Jacopo Gianninoto and harpsichordist Alberto Firrincieli. This concert will be performed on August 24 at the Music Hall, Chulalongkorn University. For ambitious business students, a presentation in September by Ajarn Alessandro Stasi, an Italian academic and lawyer who lectures on business law at the Mahidol University International College, will inform listeners about legal knowledge needed to create a business involving Thailand and Italy. This will be followed in October by the Week of the Italian Language in the World, a yearly event organized by the diplomatic network to promote the Italian language. Universities where the Italian language is taught, including Chulalongkorn , Bangkok , and Silpakorn Universities, will organize activities to show that studying Italian in Thailand can be sanook.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)