Seminario Maior da Sagrada Familia, Coimbra

The Sagrada Família Major Seminary is a religious building located in the city of Coimbra, Portugal. It is a National Monument since April 22, 2021.

The building was initially built on June 16, 1748, at the request of D. Miguel da Anunciação, bishop of Coimbra and 16th Count of Arganil, and was designed by Italian architects Giovani Tamossi and Giacomo Azzollini. Its inauguration took place on October 28, 1765.

The Old Library of the Major Seminary of Coimbra is located in one of the rooms on the ground floor and contains a collection of around 9,000 books, considered of high historical and heritage value, namely printed between the beginning of the 16th century and the year 1800 .

This library began to be formed with the donation of the private library of the Bishop-Conde D. Miguel da Anunciação, founder of the Seminary, and the collection was later increased with the regular entry of various works, by purchase and donation.

The Seminar was concerned with constituting a Library that would respond to the needs of all the students housed there: those destined for ecclesiastical life (Ordinandos) but also those destined for civil life (Portionists)”.

The Decree of extinction of the religious orders (published on May 30, 1834) reached the University Colleges of Coimbra and is at the origin of the dispersion of its rich libraries, two having been preserved: the Royal College of São Pedro (which today is guard in the General Library of the University) and the Old Library of the Major Seminary.

The Old Library's main characteristics are that it has been selected (it was created and carefully maintained over three centuries); specific (supporting a well-identified universe of teachers and students); and it remains intact (it resisted not only the effects of the Decree of 1834 but also the process of secularization of the Church's assets, which followed the establishment of the Republic in 1910).

With works in Latin, Portuguese, Spanish and French, the main thematic areas of the Old Library of the Major Seminary of Coimbra are Theology, Law (Canon and Civil), Sacred Scripture, Humanities and History.