Access procedures
The Biblioteca Riccardiana, a public library under state jurisdiction pertaining to the Ministry for Cultural Activities and Tourism, specializes in the conservation, valorization, and protection of its own manuscripts and rare printed collections.
Library Hours
Monday & Thursday: 08.15 AM – 5.15 PM
Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday: 08.15 AM – 1.45 PM
Saturday & Sunday: Closed
Book circulation runs throughout the day without interruption. However, requests for documents are accepted until 30 minutes before the Reading Room closes.
Readers can obtain the library materials that are preserved in Palazzo Neroni (if requested in advance) at 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM. The library is closed to the public during holidays and for 15 days during the summer season for cleaning and maintenance.
Access
Access to the Library is granted to both Italian and foreign researchers, scholars, and students who demonstrate that they are conducting scientific research on manuscripts and printed texts – either reproduced or in their original format – who are 18 years of age or above. In addition, readers who are 16 years of age and above are granted access to the Library for first introduction and school/work activities.
The Library is handicap accessible, with elevator access.
Admission Procedure
If readers wish to have access to the manuscripts and printed texts of the Library, they are required to show a recognized form of identification (passport, identity card, government-issued cards, driver’s license, or equivalent photo identification from a foreign country) and complete a form with personal data to provide to the librarian in the Sala di Studio. In the form, readers will have to specify the object and the goal of their research. Additionally, they will need to provide specific information about their own home institution (be that either an institute, entity, or study center). University students and Ph.D candidates will also have to show a recommendation letter written on their institute’s letterhead by the scholar supervising their research. The said letter will have to offer an academic profile of the reader asking to be admitted to the library and specify the deadline by which his/her research should be completed.
The reader will then be given a personal card that allows access to the Modern General Section and the Manuscript/Rare Collections Section. Readers’ cards are valid for one year and renewable through the same procedure described above to obtain them.
The users’ personal data will be used for statistical and service purposes only, in compliance with Italian privacy regulations (Law 675/96).
All readers are required to leave their bags and other personal belongings in the lockers at the entrance of the library.
For space and safety reasons, it is not possible to leave suitcases or large bags at the library. We thus suggest that they be deposited at the nearby Santa Maria Novella train station.
Readers are permitted to take their laptops to the Library rooms, provided they don’t carry them inside their cases or sleeves. Portable scanners are not allowed. Special permission is required if readers wish to bring personal books into the library for study reasons, which must be specified in writing.
When reading books, readers are permitted to only use pencils. It is prohibited to leave unattended items on tables or to entrust items to another person, even temporarily. In addition, the materials given in the reading room are not to be taken out of the room.
Readers can request up to ten volumes (between manuscripts and rare editions), consulting them one at a time, and no more than ten volumes in the case of additional hours of operation in the afternoon. For additional requests, readers will have to consult the Library Director and ask for permission.
Manuscripts and printed editions (both old and modern) can be put on reserve under the reader’s name until the end of each month. An agreement with the library is required in cases of prolonged study of manuscripts or rare books (theses, PhD. dissertations, publications, etc.).
Access to the library is denied if the purpose is merely to read one’s own books.
Bibliographic materials in the Reading Room are on open shelf access; as such, they can be read without asking for permission. It is, instead, necessary to request documents preserved at Palazzo Neroni (modern editions with A, E I or U, Segré, Uzielli call numbers and journals).
For general information, basic orientation, and help with bibliographies, readers can ask the librarian on duty in the Sala di Studio or in the Public Relations Office.
English translation by Megan Krynen (University of Mississippi – ISI Florence) and Elsa Vellone (University of Rochester – ISI Florence).