Garin Ancient books collection

The Garin Ancient books collection was donated to the Library in 2005, as instructed in the scholar's will, together with his modern book collection.
The collection in its entirety is composed of around 30,000 volumes.
This antique collection, which includes many rare books, consists of around 2700 volumes, more than 500 of which are editions from the sixteenth century and 460 editions from the seventeenth century, above all of philosophical, historical-literary and scientific subjects, as witness the scholar's research themes, which include the philosophical culture of Humanism and the Renaissance, Cartesian studies and the history of science and of the Enlightenment.

The sixteenth-century editions have been catalogued within a project of valorisation of antique collections promoted and funded by the Tuscany Region, and in which the Library of the Accademia della Crusca and the Library of the Juridical Association (Circolo Giuridico) of Siena also participated.
The cataloguing of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century editions was completed in 2007.
The creation of the online catalogue, an essential tool for research and for access to the collections, has made available to scholars this outstanding bibliographical heritage, which has already been widely consulted.