Biblioteca Reale
The Royal Library, founded by King Carlo Alberto of Savoy-Carignan (1798-1849), located on the ground floor of the east wing of the Royal Palace, is set in the elegant ambience created in 1837 by the court architect Pelagius Palagi and collects mainly works of history of the Savoy and historical sciences. It preserves precious medieval manuscripts - which are remarkable evidences luxurious missals of Duke Amadeus VIII - elegant pilot books, rare incunabula, beautiful scenic album designed by John Thomas Borgonio - seventeenth-century naturalist guides, single pieces for content and quality - which belonged to the Duke Carlo Emanuele I. The "Theatrum Sabaudiae", published in Amsterdam in 1682, shows the will of the Dukes of Savoy to entrust to the press disclosure of the magnificence of the capital, and the residences of their territory represented in colorful plates of strong visual impact. Of exceptional value is graphic collection of the Library, which was acquired by King Carlo Alberto in 1839, consisting of drawings of major Italian and foreign masters from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century and made extraordinary by the presence of thirteen handwritten pages of Leonardo da Vinci. Since 1998, the Leonardo Room, produced with the assistance of the Council for the Promotion of Arts and Culture in Turin, shows to rotation its valuable heritage, according to a specific policy for the promotion of the assets owned.
