Florence National Central Library

Undoubtedly a nice library, but visitors are strongly discouraged. Books here are generally not for reading or consultation, only storage. The presumably wonderful reading rooms are not for general use. For a devoted student of library history and library architecture, this is somewhat depressing. But not unexpected.

I truly want to thank all the staff , I visit the library quite often and the ladies there are absolutely the finest and nicest I have ever met, always available to serve with most educated manners and culturally prepared to offer you the best suggestions. The library is one the widest Italy and spaces are huge. worth visiting it . Florentine people let always recognize as the most cultural people in Italy is each case, so proud to be born in Florence the Magnificent ex capital of Italy. Appreciate the relaxing silence and the books smell in all rooms there. Enjoy Florence.

My husband and I have been in Florence for one month. We stayed in an apartment just 2 minutes from the library. We went to see it and was told we couldn’t come in, which is absolutely understandable, although the woman at the desk was very curt. They told us to return on a Saturday morning at 11:30 for a tour. When we returned today, the man at the office told us to wait outside. My husband speaks Italian, after studying for many years. The man was gruff and impatient with us. We waited outside and finally left. This was probably the worst place we were treated. Everywhere else the people were friendly, helpful and kind. I find it unnecessary to have such rude behavior. Ed and Danielle Mack Florida, USA

The National Central Library of Florence (Italian: Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, BNCF) is a public national library in Florence, the largest in Italy and one of the most important in Europe, one of the two central libraries of Italy, along with the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Rome. The library was founded in 1714 when scholar Antonio Magliabechi bequeathed his entire collection of books, encompassing approximately 30,000 volumes, to the city of Florence. By 1743, it was required that a copy of every work published in Tuscany be submitted to the library. Originally known as the Magliabechiana, the library was opened to the public in 1747. Its holdings were combined with those of the Biblioteca Palatina Lorenese [it] in 1861, and by 1885, the library had been renamed as the National Central Library of Florence, or the BNCF. Since 1870, the library has collected copies of all Italian publications. Since 1935, the collections have been housed in a building designed by Cesare Bazzani and V. Mazzei, located along the Arno River in the quarter of Santa Croce. Before this, they were found in various rooms belonging to the Uffizi Gallery. The National Library System (SBN), located in the BNCF, is responsible for the automation of library services and the indexing of national holdings. Unfortunately, a major flood of the Arno River in 1966 damaged nearly one-third of the library's holdings, most notably its periodicals and Palatine and Magliabechi collections. The Restoration Center was subsequently established and may be credited with saving many of these priceless artifacts. However, much work remains to be done and some items are forever lost. The library curates the BNCF Thesaurus (Nuovo soggettario), a "subject indexing tool for various types of resources".

Excellent library with very nice staff. Reviewers, please stop complaining about not being able to sightsee there. It is a library not a tourist attraction. The staff's priority is to protect its unique collections, and facilitate access for readers. If you can't speak Italian, you're obviously not a legitimate reader since you won't be able to understand 99% of the books. The admission policy is logical and fair, for goodness sake stop complaining.

We didn't go in there but it looked so massive and great from outside

Indescrivibile tempio del sapere. The most important state library in Italy. With the one in Rome the only Institute devote to conservation of book wherever published obviously sharing from Italy. A lot of manuscripts and documents are in the funds riserve to scholars.

Impressive from the outside, but it is disappointingly exclusive for a centre of scholarly activity. Visiting libraries when travelling is usually a pleasure, an opportunity to appreciate local literature and architecture in solace for a few moments, but we were waved away in the middle of the day without a chance to even speak to staff.