Biblioteca Ambrosiana

The Biblioteca Ambrosiana (Ambrosian Library) in Milan, housed along with the Pinoteca Ambroisiana (Ambrosian Gallery) is one of the great repositories of European culture.

The library was founded by Cardinal Federico Borromeo (1564-1631), whose agents scoured Western Europe, Greece and Syria for books and manuscripts.

Cardinal Borromeo's collection of more than 30,000 manuscripts includes a 5th-century illustrated Iliad, early editions of Dante's Divine Comedy (1353), and the Muratorian Canon (170 AD), the earliest example of an authoritative list of Biblical books.

Construction on a building to house the cardinal's manuscripts and printed books began in 1603. He also gave his collection of paintings and drawings to the library.

Shortly after the cardinal's death, the Biblioteca Ambrosiana acquired 12 manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci, including his Codex Atlanticus. There are now some 12,000 drawings by European artists from the 14th through the 19th centuries, obtained from the collections of a wide range of patrons and artists, academicians, collectors, art dealers, and architects.