About us

Biblioteca Comunale Planettiana was founded in 1859, when Marquis Angelo Ghislieri decided to donate his book collection to his native town “to start a library that became fundamental to acquire more knowledge and therefore to be useful to society”; thus, the first nucleus of the Library was established, later enriched with numerous acquisitions, including the donation from the Pianetti family.

The Pianettis were a noble family from Jesi who, since the early 18th century, left their book collection for public use. Its cultural importance is given not only by the span of time it covers (from the 15th to the 19th century), but also by the prestige of the family.

Since the 1500s even the convents in Jesi had their own book collections. Following the Valerio decree of 1861, regarding the suppression of religious congregations, in 1868 the municipality absorbed the libraries of four different convents: Franciscan of S. Floriano, Zoccolanti of S. Francesco al Monte, Capuchins and Carmelites of the Sanctuary delle Grazie. The appropriation of these collections brought to the Public Library more than 6,000 volumes, especially from the 17th and the 18th century.

At the beginning of the 1900s, the Library received a donation from the Pianetti family: more than 15,000 volumes as manuscripts, incunables and cinquecentine (books from the 16th century). After acquiring this precious collection, the Library was given the name “Planettiana”.

Initially hosted in the Town Hall and the desecrated church of S. Floriano, the Institute was finally transferred in 1948 at Palazzo della Signoria, one of the most beautiful Reinassance monuments in Jesi.
 

A Renaissance palace built in the fifteen century to a design by Francesco di Giorgio Martini, a renowned architect from Siena, it has an imposing appearance (28 meters wide at the front and 23 meters high, excluding the tower).
Yet, it remains elegant thanks to a skilful balance between solid and open spaces.

At the centre of the main façade, a marble aedicule frames the lion rampant, symbol of the town of Jesi, designed by Martini.
The base of the aedicule bears the inscription AESIS REX DEDIT FED IMP. CORONAVIT RES P ALEX VI PONT INSTAURAVIT “King Aesis granted it, Emperor Frederick II crowned it, and the Republic, under the pontificate of Alexander VI, established it”.
This is an explicit reference to the lion rampant granted by King Aesis -, the mythical founder of the town -, elevated to royal status by Emperor Frederick II, and produced by the Aesina Republic during the pontificate of Alexander VI.

Crossing the threshold, you enter the courtyard designed by Martini.
It is surrounded by a large portico characterised by fourteen exposed brick pillars with capitals in white Istrian stone.

There is also a Romanesque-Gothic sculpture depicting a crouching lion holding a lamb in its claws. The work was probably located at the entrance to the now-lost Church of San Francesco al Monte in Jesi.
The portal, dating from the late fifteen century, also comes from the same building.

The second floor appears today as much as it did upon completion of the twentieth-century restoration work. It is not a loggia, but rather a sort of veranda constructed with eighteen rough beams that openly reveal their function as struts supporting four canopies sloping inward to collect rainwater.

Francesco di Giorgio Martini (Siena, 1439−1501) was one of the most significant figures of the Italian Renaissance. He was renowned for his extraordinary versatility as a painter, sculptor, architect, and military engineer. His name is closely associated with the Marche region, where he left important examples of architecture and civil engineering. Thanks to his fruitful collaboration with Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, Francesco di Giorgio Martini completed the Ducal Palace.

He is also credited with major works such as the Church of San Bernardino, designed as a mausoleum for the ducal family, and the Convent on Santa Chiara. Among his most significant achievements are the famous rocche martiniane (‘Martinian fortresses’), fortifications designed or renovated according to advanced defensive principles and spread throughout the territory of the duchy. Particularly notable are those of San Leo, Sant’Agata Feltria, Monte Cerignone, Sassocorvaro, Fossombrone, Cagli, Frontone, Mondavio, and numerous other smaller towns. He also worked in Ancona, where from 1484 he oversaw the construction of the Palazzo del Governo, and in Jesi, where in 1486 he designed the Palazzo della Signoria.

The room owes its name to the fact that, for centuries, it housed the town’s salt reserves. 
In the original design by Francesco di Giorgio Martini (1439–1501), it was intended to serve as the Palace Armoury, but was soon converted into a salt storehouse. Evidence of this use is carved into the sixteenth-century stone portal at the entrance on Via Pergolesi. The adjacent door bears the inscription: RES PVBLICA AESINA (the Esina Republic), a testimony to the considerable statutory autonomy the town enjoyed for centuries, even while it was part of the Papal States.
In 2014, this space was converted into a public reading room of the Library, following a redesign by the Milan-based architect Paola Vidulli. 

Built at the end of the fifteen century, this hall originally housed the Consiglio dei Priori (the former Town Council) and, from 1586, the Papal Governor. A testament to its ancient prestige is the wooden coffered ceiling, carved in 1522 by Pieramore di Bartolomeo, a pupil of Indivini, which bears the town’s coat of arms at its centre.
Running along the walls of the Grand Hall in a rigorous architectural rhythm is the ancient bookcase of the Pianetti family, built between 1710 and 1715 at the behest of Cardolo Maria Pianetti. The structure is defined by decorated pilasters and explanatory cartouches identifying the various fields of knowledge, offering valuable insight into the organisation of eighteen-century libraries, where functional design was combined with refined decorative splendour. Long believed to have been lost, the library was recovered and restored in 2005.

Today it houses the Conventual Collection, comprising of the town’s 5.000 antique books from the libraries of the town’s four monasteries suppressed in 1868 following Valerio Decree.

On the central wall hangs a wood-panel painting from 1710 celebrating the founding of Jesi’s first public library, established by Marquis Cardolo Maria Pianetti to honour the wishes his uncle Monsignor Giuseppe Pianetti had expressed in his will. Below the painting hangs a portrait of Marquis Angelo Ghislieri (1790−1861). It was thanks to his donation of several hundred highly valuable volumes to the town that Jesi’s Municipal Library was established in 1859.

The room also includes a portrait of Monsignor Giuseppe Pianetti (1631−1709), who was the founder and principal architect of the family library, and a portrait of Monsignor Carlo Maria Pianetti (1648−1725), who also contributed to the expansion of the library.

The Planettiana Library in Jesi owes its name to the prestigious book collection of the ancient Pianetti family. The collection was assembled by Giuseppe Pianetti (1631–1709), a distinguished bibliophile and scholar, a prominent member of the noble family of Jesi, and Bishop of Todi from 1673. After his death, in accordance with the provisions of his will, which prohibited the sale of the collection and stipulated it be made available to the citizens of Jesi, the library was inherited by his nephew Cardolo Maria Pianetti (1676–1743). It was then transferred to Jesi and housed in the Old Pianetti Palace, now home to the Printing Museum. 
In 1906, Bernardino Pianetti (1860–1921) donated the entire collection to the Municipality of Jesi. The first director of the Municipal Library, Cesare Annibaldi, temporarily housed it in the former Church of San Floriano. Since the post-Second World War period, the library has been permanently  housed in the Palazzo della Signoria.
The book collection comprised around fifteen thousand volumes, mostly fine editions from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, produced by some of the most important Italian and European printing houses.  
The Planettiana room houses two globes by the renowned Venetian cosmographer Vincenzo Coronelli (1650–1718), a terrestrial one and a celestial one, both created in the 1690s.