Lucchesiana Library

At a glance. This 18th-century temple of knowledge in the Historic Center houses over eighty thousand ancient documents. Did you know the books are ordered by type of wisdom and that it fascinated Grand Tour travelers and a young Pirandello? Find it on the map and read more below!

Good to know. Along Via Duomo lies one of Southern Italy’s most precious treasure troves of knowledge: the eighteenth-century Lucchesiana Library, the realized dream of an enlightened mind. Count Andrea Lucchesi Palli, of the Princes of Campofranco, was a man of refined culture with a genuine passion for learning and discovery. Over the years, he had amassed extraordinary volumes, manuscripts, and rare artifacts. So deeply was he convinced that knowledge was the primary driver of a community’s spiritual and social growth that he chose to share his incredible collection with the citizens of Agrigento upon becoming their Bishop.

In 1760, he purchased the land adjacent to the Episcopal Palace and erected, “sparing neither labor nor expense”, this temple of wisdom, bestowing it “sincerely and irrevocably” upon the people of Agrigento on October 16, 1765.

At its opening, the library housed over 10,000 volumes from its founder’s personal collection, including exquisite manuscripts, over 30 Arabic codices, incunabula, and illuminated manuscripts. Having overcome various historical adversities over the centuries, the Lucchesiana has grown through numerous bequests and donations, expanding into a heritage of well over 80,000 precious volumes and historical documents.

Stepping across the threshold of the Monumental Hall means immersing oneself in a magnificent allegory of the universe of knowledge. The imposing carved wooden bookcases and ornate wrought-iron balconies frame a book arrangement that is both rigorous and complementary:

• The left side houses the Humanities (law, history, classical literature), guarded by the wooden allegory of Reason, which explores nature through the intellect.
• The right side, specular and harmonious, enshrines the Divine Sciences (Sacred Scripture, theology, Church Fathers), protected by the allegory of Faith, which contemplates the mystery per speculum.

It is an extraordinary visual dialogue, through which the founder reminds visitors across the ages that reason and faith are the two wings by which humanity ascends toward truth.

These halls and volumes have mesmerized celebrated Grand Tour travelers for centuries, including Patrick Brydone, Joseph Hermann von Riedesel, and Henry Swinburne, as well as a young native of Agrigento, Luigi Pirandello, the future Nobel Laureate in Literature.

Today, just as then, the Lucchesiana Library continues to enchant visitors with its cultured soul, watched over by the white marble statue of its founder, who still stands guard with a look both stern and fatherly over his priceless legacy.