Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze

The Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze is one of the most important libraries in Italy and Europe. Its original nucleus derives from the collections of Antonio Magliabechi, donated through a testamentary bequest in 1714. In 1771 the collection of the Biblioteca Palatina Mediceo Lotaringia was added to it. In 1861 the Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze was established, and in 1885 it became the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze. The present building was inaugurated in 1935. The library preserves a colonial-period Indigenous Mesoamerican manuscript known in Mesoamericanist studies as the Magliabechiano Codex, which contains pictorial images and alphabetic texts in the Spanish language. It is one of the most important historical sources on Aztec religion and mythology.