With its centuries-old history, the public library Planettiana stores a precious antique books heritage, resulting from many significant donations. The Institute was founded in 1859, thanks to a donation from marquise Angelo Ghislieri.

In 1868, four religious congregations in Jesi were abolished (Franciscan, Zoccolanti, Capuchins and Carmelites) and their books confiscated, adding more than 6,000 books to the library.

Pianetti’s donation

Among various donations to the library, the most precious one comes from the noble family Pianetti, specifically by Monsignor Giuseppe Pianetti, a book-lover jurist. According to his will, the collection arrived in Jesi in 1710 and was opened to the public by his nephew Cardolo Maria, who ordered the creation of an illustrated catalogue of the collection. The library, joined with the family archive, is currently located inside the Planettiana. It is arranged by different topics, all regarding the knowledge of the 17th and 18th century, especially canon and civil law.

Manuscripts, incunables, cinquecentine

Planettiana library also includes more than 700 manuscripts, 134 incunables, over 4,000 “cinquecentine”, a rare collection of 200 almanacs and 45 volumes with gazettes from the 17th and 18th century.

Many restorations were made on scrolls, manuscripts, atlases and even the globes from Coronelli, a venetian cosmographer who was commissioned by the Pianetti at the end of the 1600s to make two globes, one celestial and one terrestrial.

Amidst all the donations, one of the jewels in the crown is the marvellous edition of Homer’s Iliad printed by Bodoni in 1808, together with the handwritten letters of Angelo Colocci.