The Marciana Library or Library of Saint Mark is a public library in Venice, Italy. It is one of the earliest surviving public libraries and repositories for manuscripts in Italy and holds one of the world's most significant collections of classical texts. It is named after St Mark, the patron saint of the city.
Main façade
Reading room
Cardinal Bessarion's letter to Doge Cristoforo Moro and the Senate of Venice, announcing the donation of his library. BNM Lat. XIV, 14 (= 4235), fol. 1r.
Justus van Gent, Portrait of Cardinal Bessarion (c. 1473–1476). Bessarion was created cardinal on 8 January 1440 by Pope Eugene IV.
Bessarion was a Byzantine Greek Renaissance humanist, theologian, Catholic cardinal and one of the famed Greek scholars who contributed to the so-called great revival of letters in the 15th century.
Painting c. 1476 by Justus van Gent and Pedro Berruguete
Wood engraving from Bibliotheca chalcographica, B1
The suburban residence of the bishops of Tusculum along the Appian way in Rome, believed to have been built and utilized by Cardinal Bessarion during his episcopate (1449–1468).
Tomb of Bessarion in the Santi Apostoli, Rome.