The Biblioteca Civica Gambalunga (Gambalunga Public Library) is located inside the building of the same name owned by the family of Alessandro Gambalunga, a patron of the arts who bequeathed the building to the Municipality of Rimini in 1617.
The library’s bibliographic heritage amounts to 286,525 volumes. The Gambalunga is famous for its precious codices (it holds 1350 of them, including two autographs by the humanist Basinio da Parma, the De Civitate Dei written for Pandolfo Malatesta, and the so-called ‘Gradenighiano’ of Dante’s Comedy) and for its numerous special bibliographic and documentary collections, including the important photographic archive.
The film library’s audiovisual and bibliographic holdings consist of over 16,000 documents. The bibliographic heritage of the children’s section amounts to over 20,000 documents.
The Gambalunga Library represents a very rare example of a private library left for public use.
A small geographical curiosity worthy of note: two wooden globes are on display where there is no trace of Australia as it has not yet been discovered.
