The Fardelliana Library

Entering the Fardelliana Library means going through the gates of one of the oldest places of culture in Trapani. Located in the church of S. Giacomo Maggiore (XIII – XVIII century), this civic library dates back to 1830 and bears the name of Giovanni Battista Fardella, minister of war of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies who donated his collection of about 2000 volumes. 

Historical and conservation library, it holds fragments of local history, including busts of illustrious Trapani and noble coats of arms, a library heritage from very heterogeneous areas of about 170 thousand volumes. 

Exceptional elements of this heritage – whose most valuable volumes come from the dissolved religious guilds – are certainly Chorali and manuscripts, such as ‘Light of the intellect’ written by the Spanish mystic Abulafia, a very rare sixteenth-century manuscript of Hebrew origin. The incunabula are also important, including the one from Saint Augustine printed in Cologne in 1467, the oldest in the library, or the one dating back to 1486 with the works of the Roman poet Virgil. There are also parchments from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century, sixteenth-century books and works from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as well as a precious nucleus of engravings by Piranesi.

Address
Largo San Giacomo, 18

Accessibility
Accessible to disabled people