Florence's National Central Library Holds Over 4,300 Artist Books

The Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze (BNCF) houses an extraordinary collection of over 4,300 artist books and objects, including works by Marcel Duchamp, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Marc Chagall, tracing 20th-century avant-garde movements. Acquired by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage in 2000 from textile industrialist Loriano Bertini, the Fondo dei libri d’artista is one of Europe's and the world's richest collections of its kind. The library, located in Piazza dei Cavalleggeri, was severely damaged in the 1966 Florence flood, which submerged nearly one million bibliographic units, including parts of the ancient Palatina and Magliabechiana collections. The international solidarity response led to the creation of a specialized book restoration laboratory, now among Italy's and Europe's most important, focusing on recovery, maintenance, and preservation of damaged volumes. The library holds 8 million bibliographic items across 130 kilometers of shelves.