La biblioteca nel Grand Tour: luogo di incontro fra uomini e libri

During the Grand Tour, Italian libraries became an attraction for foreign tourists and travellers. Although primarily interested in the architecture and paintings enriching those librar- ies, as well as in the relics, manuscripts, documents, and books that such places preserved, foreign visitors also had the opportunity to meet or even arrange encounters with librarians and scholars specialised in different fields. This paper will focus on the idea of the library as “a cultural intercon- nection of worlds”, as testified by the visitors’ writings that have come down to us, such as letters and historical diaries. Indeed, at that time libraries hosted circles of literati and became sites of cultural encounters and exchange involving people, books, symbols, and mementoes. Each visit is thus to be seen as a new departure, the stage of a physical journey as well as the crossing of a metaphorical and cultural threshold.