Biblioteca Universitaria di Cagliari (University Library of Cagliari), Cagliari

During special events like open monuments, the rectory palace and the library in Cagliari offer delightful surprises with their interconnected neoclassical architecture from the 18th and 19th centuries. Visitors are treated to long corridors, lavishly adorned halls, and a charming blend of traditional and classical elements. The Biblioteca Universitaria di Cagliari is particularly noteworthy for its grandeur and historical significance.

It was established in 1764 with the publication of the "Constitutions" for the reform of the University. The first regulation was issued by Vittorio Amedeo III of Savoy in 1785 and was opened to the public in 1792 in the Eighteenth-Century Hall, on the first floor of the new University building. The original nucleus of its heritage consists of the sovereign's private library and funds belonging to the suppressed Jesuit Order and the copies of their works that the teachers were required to provide. In 1843 the Baylle collection of works of Sardinian interest was acquired. It preserves more than 6000 manuscripts, 236 incunabula and more than 5000 sixteenth-century manuscripts.

Much more than a book archive, among the narrow streets and medieval towers of the Castello district, you will find a priceless treasure chest of Sardinian history and culture. Over six hundred thousand bibliographic units, of which more than six thousand autographs and manuscripts, almost six hundred codices and over two hundred incunambulums, including the oldest printed edition of the Carta de Logu - code of laws in force in the Middle Ages in the Sardinian Giudicati -, some very rare works from the 15th century and a codex of the Divine Comedy dated between the 14th and 15th centuries. The University Library of Cagliari is a prestigious 'guardian' of the written memory of the Island, thanks to the huge heritage of volumes and prints and the charm of the building and its furnishings. Born in 1764, during the reign of Carlo Emanuele III of Savoy, it stands inside the University Palace, above the Balice Bastion. Originally, the complex was supposed to include three buildings: the buildings of the University and the Tridentine Seminary and, between them, a theatre, which was never built. The library was located in the Great Hall, today the 'eighteenth-century room', but over time it acquired new spaces in both buildings. ***PH***