Construction ,
Portrait of Jacopo Sansovino () The construction of the library was an integral part of the (renewal of the city), a vast architectural programme begun under Doge
Andrea Gritti (). The programme was intended to heighten Venetian self-confidence and reaffirm the republic's international prestige after the earlier defeat at
Agnadello during the
War of Cambrai and the subsequent
Peace of Bologna, which sanctioned
Habsburg hegemony on the Italian peninsula at the end of the War of the League of Cognac. Championed by the
Grimani family, it called for the transformation of
Saint Mark's Square from a medieval town centre with food vendors, money changers, and even latrines into a
classical forum. The intent was to evoke the memory of the ancient
Roman Republic and, in the aftermath of the
Sack of Rome in 1527, to present Venice as Rome's true successor. This would visually substantiate Venetian claims that, despite the republic's relative loss of political influence, its longevity and stability were assured by its constitutional structure, consisting in a
mixed government modelled along the lines of the
classical republics. Monumental in scale, the architectural programme was one of the most ambitious projects of urban renewal in sixteenth-century Italy. In addition to the
mint (begun 1536) and the
loggia of the bell tower of Saint Mark's (begun 1538), it involved replacing the dilapidated thirteenth-century buildings that lined the southern side of the square and the area in front of the Doge's Palace. For this, the procurators of Saint Mark
de supra commissioned
Jacopo Sansovino, their
proto (consultant architect and buildings manager), on 14 July 1536. A refugee from the Sack of Rome, Sansovino possessed the direct knowledge and understanding of ancient Roman prototypes necessary to carry out the architectural programme. The commission called for a model of a three-storey building, but the project was radically transformed. On 6 March 1537, it was decided that the construction of the new building, now with only two storeys, would be limited to the section directly in front of the palace and that the upper floor was to be reserved for the
offices of the procurators and the library. This would not only satisfy the terms of the donation, it would bring renown to the republic as a centre of wisdom, learning, and culture. Significantly, the earlier decree of 1515, citing as examples the libraries
in Rome and
in Athens, expressly stated that a perfect library with fine books would serve as an ornament for the city and as a light for all of Italy.
Sansovino's superintendence (1537–) Construction proceeded slowly. The chosen site for the library, although owned by the government, was occupied by five hostelries (Pellegrino, Rizza, Cavaletto, Luna, Lion) and several food stalls, many of which had long-standing contractual rights. It was thus necessary to find a mutually agreed upon alternative location, and at least three of the hostelries had to remain in the area of Saint Mark's Square. In addition, the hostelries and shops provided a steady flow of rental income to the procurators of Saint Mark
de supra, the magistrates responsible for the public buildings around Saint Mark's Square. So there was the need to limit the disruption of the revenue by gradually relocating the activities as the building progressed and new space was required to continue. , ''Procession for the Doge's Marriage with the Sea'' (detail), showing the meat market in the foreground and the unfinished library behind () Work was suspended following the
Ottoman–Venetian War (1537–1540) due to lack of funding but resumed in 1543. The next year, 1544, the rest of the Pellegrino hostelry was torn down, followed by the Rizza. In the subsequent enquiry, Sansovino claimed that workmen had prematurely removed the temporary wooden supports before the concrete had set and that a
galley in the basin of Saint Mark, firing her cannon as a salute, had shaken the building. Nevertheless, the architect was sentenced to personally repay the cost of the damage, which took him 20 years. Further, his stipend was suspended until 1547. As a consequence of the collapse, the design was modified with a lighter wooden structure to support the roof. In the following years, the procurators increased funding by borrowing from trust funds, recovering unpaid rents, selling unprofitable holdings, and drawing upon the interest income from government bonds. Work proceeded rapidly thereafter. The Cavaletto hostelry was relocated in 1550. The commemorative plaque in the adjacent vestibule, corresponding to the next three bays, bears the date of the Venetian year 1133 (
i.e. 1554), an indication that the end of construction was already considered imminent. By then, fourteen bays had been constructed. However, owing to difficulties in finding a suitable alternative location, only in 1556 was the last of the hostelries, the Lion, relocated, allowing the building to reach the sixteenth bay in correspondence with the lateral entry of the mint. Although it was decided five years later to relocate the meat market and continue the building, no further action was taken, and in 1570 Sansovino died. Since the original plans by Sansovino do not survive, it is not known whether the architect intended for the library to reach the final length of twenty-one bays. Scamozzi's negative comment on the junction of the library with the mint has led some architectural historians to argue that the result could not have been intentionally designed by Sansovino. However archival research and technical and aesthetic assessments have not been conclusive. During Scamozzi's superintendence, the debate regarding the height of the building was reopened. Scamozzi, nonetheless, recommended adding a floor to the library. Engineers were called to assess the existing foundation to determine whether it could bear the additional weight. The conclusions were equivocal, and it was ultimately decided in 1588 that the library would remain with only two floors.
Architecture Upper floor The upper storey is characterized by a series of
Serlians, so-called because the architectural element was illustrated and described by
Sebastiano Serlio in his ''Tutte l'opere d'architettura et prospetiva'', a seven-volume treatise for Renaissance architects and scholarly patrons. Later popularized by the architect
Andrea Palladio, the element is also known as the Palladian window. It is inspired by ancient
triumphal arches such as the
Arch of Constantine and consists in a high-arched opening that is flanked by two shorter
sidelights topped with
lintels and supported by
columns. From his days in Florence, Sansovino was likely familiar with the Serlian, having observed it in the tabernacle of the Merchants' guild by
Donatello and
Michelozzo () on the façade of the Church of
Orsanmichele. He would have undoubtedly seen
Donato Bramante's tripartite window in the Sala Regia of the Vatican during his Roman sojourn and may have been aware of the sixteenth-century
nymphaeum at Genazzano near Rome, attributed to Bramante, where the Serlian is placed in a series. At the Marciana, Sansovino adopted the contracted Serlian of the Orsanmichele prototype, which has narrow sidelights, but these are separated from the tall opening by double columns, placed one behind the other. Layered over the series of Serlians is a row of large
Ionic columns. The
capitals with the
egg-and-dart motif in the
echinus and
flame palmettes and masks in the collar may have been directly inspired by the
Temple of Saturn in Rome and perhaps by the
Villa Medicea at Poggio a Caiano by
Giuliano da Sangallo. For the bases, as a sign of his architectural erudition, Sansovino adopted the Ionic base as it had been directly observed and noted by
Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and
Baldassare Peruzzi in
ancient ruins at Frascati. The idea of an ornate
frieze above the columns with
festoons alternating with window openings had already been used by Sansovino for the courtyard of Palazzo Gaddi in Rome (1519–1527). But the insertion of windows into a frieze had been pioneered even earlier by Bramante at
Palazzo Caprini in Rome (1501–1510, demolished 1938) and employed in Peruzzi's early sixteenth-century
Villa Farnesina. In the library, the specific pattern of the festoons with
putti appears to be based on an early second-century sarcophagus fragment belonging to Cardinal
Domenico Grimani's collection of
antiquities.
Ground floor The ground floor is modelled on the
Theatre of Marcellus and the
Colosseum in Rome. It consists in a succession of
Doric columns supporting an
entablature and is layered over a series of arches resting on pillars. The combination of columns layered over an
arcade had been proposed by Bramante for the Palazzo di Giustizia (unexecuted), and was employed by Antonio da Sangallo the younger for the courtyard of
Palazzo Farnese (begun 1517). In adopting the solution for the Marciana Library, Sansovino was faithfully adhering to the recommendation of
Leon Battista Alberti that in larger structures the column, inherited from Greek architecture, should only support an entablature, whereas the arch, inherited from Roman mural construction, should be supported on square pillars so that the resulting arcade appears to be the residual of "a wall open and discontinued in several places". According to the architect's son,
Francesco, Sansovino's design for the corner of the Doric frieze was much discussed and admired for its faithful adherence to the principles of
Ancient Roman architecture as outlined by
Vitruvius in
De architectura. These principles required that a
triglyph be centred over the last column and then followed by half a
metope, but the space was insufficient. With no surviving classical examples to guide them, Bramante, Antonio da Sangallo the Younger,
Raphael, and other great Renaissance architects had struggled with the dilemma, implementing various ideas, none of which satisfied the Vitruvian dictum. Sansovino's solution was to lengthen the end of the frieze by placing a final
pilaster on a wider
pier, thus creating the space necessary for a perfect half metope. Francesco Sansovino relates that his father additionally sensationalized the design by challenging the leading architects in Italy to resolve the problem and then triumphantly revealing his own solution. (attributed), statue of Apollo (Orpheus?)
Carvings Rather than a two-dimensional wall, the façade is conceived as an assemblage of three-dimensional structural elements, including piers, arcades, columns, and entablatures layered atop one another to create a sense of depth, which is increased by the extensive surface carvings. These are the work of Sansovino's collaborators, including
Danese Cattaneo, Pietro da Salò,
Bartolomeo Ammannati, and
Alessandro Vittoria. In
low relief, the
underarches have either mythological scenes, mostly related to the divinity in the keystone, or
grotesques. The spandrels on the upper floor have allegorical female figures with wings. These are in
mid relief, thus creating the illusion that they are further from the viewer. The upright structural axes, consisting of the succession of columns and pedestals, become progressively lighter. This all serves to emphasize the verticality and counterbalance the long, horizontal succession of arcades. The
balustrade above is surmounted by statues of pagan divinities and immortalized heroes of Antiquity. Built by Scamozzi between 1588 and 1591 following Sansovino's design, this solution for the roofline may have been influenced by
Michelangelo's designs for the
Capitoline Hill in Rome and may have later inspired Scamozzi's own work at the
Teatro Olimpico in
Vicenza. Among the sculptors were Agostino and Vigilio Rubini,
Camillo Mariani,
Tiziano Aspetti, and
Girolamo Campagna. The effect of the library, overall, is that the entire façade has been encrusted with archaeological artefacts. Statues and carvings abound, and there are no large areas of plain wall. In addition to the abundance of classical decorative elements – obelisks, keystone heads, spandrel figures, and reliefs – the Doric and Ionic orders, each with the appropriate frieze, cornice, and base, follow ancient Roman prototypes, giving the building a sense of authenticity. The proportions, however, do not always respect Vitruvian canons. Scamozzi, a rigid classicist, was critical of the arches on the ground floor, considered to be dwarfed and ill-proportioned, and the excessive height of the Ionic entablature with respect to the columns. Nevertheless, the classical references were sufficient to satisfy the Venetians’ desire to emulate the great civilizations of Antiquity and to present their own city as the successor of the Roman Republic.
Interior The library historically occupied the upper floor, while the ground floor was let to shops, and later cafes, as sources of revenue to the procurators. The gilded interior rooms are decorated with oil paintings by the masters of Venice's
Mannerist period, including
Titian,
Tintoretto,
Paolo Veronese, and
Andrea Schiavone. Some of these paintings show mythological scenes derived from the writings of classical authors: Ovid's
Metamorphoses and
Fasti, Apuleius's
The Golden Ass, Nonnus's
Dionysiaca, Martianus Capella's
The Marriage of Philology and Mercury, and the
Suda. In many instances, these stories of the pagan divinities are employed in a metaphorical sense on the basis of the early Christian writings of
Arnobius and
Eusebius. Other paintings show allegorical figures and include Renaissance hieroglyphics, consisting in symbols of plants, animals, and objects with specific, but enigmatic, meanings. They reflect the particular interest in the esotericism of the
Hermetic writings and the
Chaldean Oracles that enthused many humanists following the publication in 1505 of
Horapollo's Ἱερογλυφικά (), the book discovered in 1419 by
Cristoforo Buondelmonti and believed to be the key for deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. The iconographic sources vary and include
Pierio Valeriano's dictionary of symbols, (1556); popular emblem books such as
Andrea Alciati's (1531) and
Achille Bocchi's (1555); the divination game (1540) by ; as well as
Vincenzo Cartari's mythographic manual for painters (1556). The "
Mantegna Tarocchi" were used as iconographic sources for the depictions of the
liberal arts and the
muses in the staircase. Although several images have a specific pedagogical function aimed at forming temperate and stalwart rulers and inculcating qualities of dedication to duty and moral excellence in the noble youth who studied in the library, the overall decorative programme reflects the Venetian aristocracy's interest in philosophy as an intellectual pursuit and, in a broader sense, the growing interest in
Platonic philosophy as one of the central currents in Renaissance thought. It is conceptually organized on the basis of the
Neoplatonic ascent of the soul and affirms that the quest for knowledge is directed towards the attainment of
divine wisdom. The programme culminates with the representation of the
ideal Platonic State founded upon a transcendent understanding of a higher reality. By association, it is implied that the Republic of Venice is the very paradigm of wisdom, order, and harmony. )
Staircase The staircase consists of four domes (the Dome of
Ethics, the Dome of
Rhetoric, the Dome of Dialectic, and the Dome of
Poetics) and two flights, the vaults of which are each decorated with twenty-one images of alternating quadrilinear
stuccoes by
Alessandro Vittoria and octagonal
frescoes by
Battista Franco (first flight) and
Battista del Moro (second flight). At the entry and on the landings, Sansovino repeated the Serlian element from the façade, making use of ancient columns taken from the dilapidated sixth-century Byzantine Church of
Santa Maria del Canneto in
Pola on the
Istrian peninsula.
Vestibule The vestibule was conceived as a lecture hall for the public school of Saint Mark. Founded in 1446 to train civil servants for the Ducal Chancery, the school initially focused on grammar and rhetoric. With the addition of a second lectureship for poetry, oratory, and history in 1460, it evolved into a
humanistic school, principally for the sons of the nobles and citizens. Among the Italian humanists who taught there were
George of Trebizond,
Giorgio Valla,
Marcantonio Sabellico,
Raphael Regius,
Battista Egnazio, and
Marco Musuro. The vestibule additionally hosted the meetings of the
Accademia Veneziana from 1560 until the academy's dissolution for bankruptcy the following year. ,
"Wisdom" () The room was originally lined with wooden benches, interrupted by a lectern that was located under the central window of the western wall. Beginning in 1591, it was transformed into the public Statuary Hall by
Vincenzo Scamozzi in order to display the collection of ancient sculpture that
Giovanni Grimani had donated to the Venetian Republic in 1587. Of the original decoration, only the ceiling remains with the
illusionistic three-dimensional decoration by
Cristoforo and Stefano De Rosa of Brescia (1559). Titian's octagonal painting in the centre has most often been identified as a
personification of Wisdom or History. Other suggestions include Poetry, Philosophy, Rhetoric, and Love of Letters. ,
Diogenes Reading Room The adjacent reading room originally had 38 desks in the centre, arranged in two rows, to which the valuable codices were
chained according to subject matter. Between the windows were imaginary portraits of great men of Antiquity, the 'philosophers', each originally accompanied by an identifying inscription. Similar portraits were located in the vestibule. Over time, however, these paintings were moved to various locations within the library and eventually, in 1763, to the Doge's Palace in order to create the wall space necessary for more bookshelves. As a result, some were lost along with all of the identifying inscriptions. The ten that survive were returned to the library in the early nineteenth century and integrated with other paintings in 1929. ,
Actaeon and Diana and grotesques The ceiling of the reading room is decorated with 21 roundels, circular oil paintings, by
Giovanni de Mio,
Giuseppe Salviati, Battista Franco,
Giulio Licinio,
Bernardo Strozzi,
Giambattista Zelotti,
Alessandro Varotari, Paolo Veronese, and Andrea Schiavone. They are inserted into a gilded and painted wooden framework along with 52 grotesques by Battista Franco. The roundels by Bernardo Strozzi and Alessandro Varotari are replacements from 1635 of earlier roundels, respectively by Giulio Licinio and Giambattista Zelotti, which were irreparably damaged by water infiltrations. The original roundels were commissioned in 1556. Although the original seven artists were formally chosen by Sansovino and Titian, The artists were mostly young and innovative. They were primarily foreign-trained and substantially outside the Venetian tradition in their artistic styles, having been influenced by the trends in
Florence, Rome,
Mantua, and
Parma, particularly by the work of Michelangelo,
Giulio Romano, and
Parmigianino. To varying degrees, the roundels that they produced for the ceiling of the reading room are consequently characterized by the emphasis on line drawing, the greater sculptural rigidity and artificial poses of the figures, and the overall dramatic compositions. They nevertheless show the influence of the Venetian painting tradition in both the colouring and brushwork. For the single roundels, various and conflicting titles have been proposed over time. The earliest titles that
Giorgio Vasari suggested for the three roundels by Veronese contain conspicuous errors, and even the titles and visual descriptions given by Francesco Sansovino, son of the architect, for all 21 roundels are often imprecise or inaccurate.
CEILING OF THE READING ROOM with Francesco Sansovino's titles/descriptions and the more recent proposals
KEY: (S) = Sansovino, 1581
(I) = Ivanoff, 1967
(P) = Paolucci, 1981
(H) = Hope, 1990
(B) = Broderick, 2016 ==Later history==