L'Italo-Americano

I n t h e a g e o f t h e B a r o q u e , t h e a r c h - bishop of Milan Fed- e r i c o B o r r o m e o ( 1 5 6 4 - 1 6 3 1 ) w o u l d send burly yet educated men to sea on a hunt for manu- scripts. Cardinal Federico was a younger cousin of the zeal- o u s p r e l a t e C a r l o Borromeo , the eventual guardian saint against the plague who played an impor- t a n t r o l e i n t h e C o u n t e r - R e f o r m a t i o n . T h e y b o t h belonged to the Borromeo f a m i l y , a n o b l e M i l a n e s e house that left a strong mark in Northern Italy. But Federico was a "uni- versal" bibliophile who sent out solo emissaries to chase manuscripts throughout the known world because of his g r e a t o b s e s s i o n : t h e Ambrosiana. In his mind it had to become one of the m o s t i m p o r t a n t c u l t u r a l i n s t i t u t i o n s i n E u r o p e , a p u b l i c l i b r a r y ( t h e V e n e r a n d a B i b l i o t e c a Ambrosiana) an art gallery ( t h e P i n a c o t e c a A m b r o s i a n a ) , a n a r t school, and an ecclesiastic college. Federico planned its foundation and grand open- ing for 1609. The Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana is the third-old- est public library in Europe after the Bodleian Library ( 1 6 0 3 ) a t O x f o r d a n d t h e Angelica Library (1604) in Rome. Within a 5-minute-walk from the Milan Cathedral, it remains a mecca for scholars and students, providing a model of intercultural dia- logue and education. It sits timelessly in the heart of the city. Its spacious rooms are filled with 40,000 manuscripts of great artistic a n d c o d i c o l o g i c a l v a l u e , 2,500 incunabula, and 1 mil- lion books. These precious library materials allow the researchers' minds to expand infinitely. Here, they can see the whole universe within themselves. T h e A m b r o s i a n a h o l d s extraordinary pieces such as the Codex Atlanticus, the l a r g e s t c o l l e c t i o n o f L e o n a r d o d a V i n c i ' s d r a w i n g s a n d w r i t i n g s (c. 1478–1518). It consists of 1,119 pages collected by the sculptor Pompeo Leoni at the end of the 16th century. T h e n a m e " A t l a n t i c u s " derives from its very large format, 64.5 cm by 43.5 cm - - a format known as the atlas used by cartographers. The C o d e x A t l a n t i c u s r e v e a l s Leonardo's mirrored writing style, his sketches, and dia- g r a m s f o r h i s i n v e n t i o n s such as war machines, para- c h u t e s , a n d h y d r a u l i c pumps. It also features archi- tectural and anatomy studies carried out by the legendary Renaissance polymath. T h e A m b r o s i a n a h a s owned the Codex Atlanticus s i n c e 1 6 3 7 . B u t f o r a f e w decades, the Codex was kept in Paris, at La Bibliothèque Nationale de France. During the Italian campaign in 1796- 1797, Napoleon had confis- cated Italian art treasures i n c l u d e d t h e C o d e x A t l a n t i c u s , w h i c h w a s returned to the Ambrosiana at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The Codex Atlanticus was divided into 12 leather- b o u n d v o l u m e s d u r i n g a restoration in the 1960s. B o r r o m e o ' s p r i v a t e a r t collection still forms the core o f t h e p u b l i c g a l l e r y ( l a P i n a c o t e c a A m b r o - siana), Milan's oldest muse- um. It features The Portrait of a Musician, an unfinished painting by Leonardo, and art masterpieces by Titian, B o t t i c e l l i , R a p h a e l , Brueghel, and many others. T h e d a r k g e n i u s o f t h e B a r o q u e p a i n t i n g Caravaggio lives on at the Ambrosiana through a still- l i f e m a s t e r p i e c e , L a Canestra di Frutta or Basket of Fruit. But which are the most precious manuscripts housed at the Ambrosian Library? Scholars are spoiled for choice, yet it is necessary to mention The Ilias Picta, a 5 t h - c e n t u r y i l l u m i n a t e d manuscript on vellum, which d e p i c t s t h e e n t i r e t y o f Homer's Iliad. It is the only existing set of ancient illus- t r a t i o n s f e a t u r i n g s c e n e s from the Iliad. T h e L i b r a r y h o l d s t h e Muratorian Canon, which is by far the earliest known list of the books of the New Testament. It is a fragment from the 6th-century con- sisting of 85 lines. It was dis- covered in the Ambrosian Library by Father Ludovico Antonio Muratori (1672– 1750), the most influential historian of his generation. Precious and beautiful is a codex of Virgil that belonged to one of our greatest poets, Francesco Petrarca (1304- 1374). Senese artist Simone Martini (1284-1344), a major MARIELLA RADAELLI LIFE PEOPLE PLACES HERITAGE A beautiful room at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, in Milan (Photo: Marco Brivio/Dreamstime) Milan's Ambrosiana, Europe's seminal library of universal knowledge Continued to page 34 THURSDAY, MAY 13, 2021 www.italoamericano.org 32 L'Italo-Americano Consultation room at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana (Photo: Marco Brivio/ Dreamstime)

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