Marciana, Biblioteca (Florence)

The library of the Dominican convent of San Marco in Florence. The basis of the collection was the library of some 800 volumes accumulated by the scholar Niccolò Niccoli. On his death the collection passed into the stewardship of a group of Florentines, including Cosimo de' Medici, who was patron of San Marco. The building commissioned to hold the collection was designed by Michelozzo in 1441.

Many of the texts were dispersed or destroyed by the religious reformer Savonarola and his followers. In 1508 the collection was bought by Pope Leo X and returned to Florence in 1532 by Clement VII. In 1808 the collection was amalgamated with that of the Laurenziana.

Marciana, Biblioteca (Venice)

The library housed in the Libreria Sansoviniana (Sansovino Library) in Piazzetta San Marco, Venice. The foundation of the collection was the gift of manuscripts made by Cardinal Bessarion to the Venetian senate in 1468. This was augmented by the bequest of Domenico Grimani. The building, begun in 1536, was designed by Jacopo Sansovino; it was completed by Scamozzi in the 1580s. The interior is decorated with paintings by Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and Andrea Schiavone.