Prospero Podiani (1535-1615) and the Foundation of a City Library

The Biblioteca Augusta of Perugia is one of the earliest public libraries in Europe; officially opened in 1623, its foundation as a public library was established in 1582 and around 1590 the library was settled in the Palazzo dei Priori, ran by its founder Prospero Podiani, whose cultural project seemed to be too ambitious for a city which was not a capital anymore. The article presents the whole project and its development during the last decades of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th, within the political and cultural frame which determined the way it was finally realised.