Biblioteca Braidense
The Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense is among the largest public libraries in Italy, belongs to the state and depends on the General Directorate for Libraries and Cultural Institutes of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism.
Since July 2015 it has been part of the Brera Art Gallery museum system. The Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense was established in 1770 by Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, who decided to open it to the public from 1786. Purchases and donations increased the collections of printed books. From 1788, thanks to legal deposit provisions, all works published in the State of Milan reached the library. The holdings of the Braidense Library consist of more than 1,500,000 units in continuous growth, including manuscripts, autographs,
ncunabula, cinquecentine, printed monographs, periodicals, photographic prints, plate negatives, microfilm and microfiches, audiovisual, computer and sound materials. The Music Collections Research Office, founded in 1965 and housed in the Milan Conservatory Library since 1978, maintains the national catalog of printed and manuscript music. In 2003 the library was augmented by the Santa Teresa Media Library.
