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Museums and Libraries
THE LIBRARY OF THE COMUNE
AND THE ETRUSCAN ACCADEMY
The Sala XVI (Hall 16), Sala XVIII (Hall 18) and Sala XIX (hall
19) on the upper level comprise the historic headquarters of the
Etruscan Academy. One should admire there the crest of the institution
painted on a wood tableau with the motto "obscura de re lucida
pango" (roughly: From darkness I create light) taken from "De
rerum natura" by Lucretius (book I, verse 933), the marble
busts of Cortona citizens, Luca Signorelli, Francesco Benedetti,
Marcello Venuti, the geneological tree of the Venuti family and
the portrait of Onofrio Baldelli.
The Sale XVII and XVIII (Halls 17 and 18) are dominated by the High
library, and contain the library publications from the 1600's and
1700's . Among these it is worth siting 213 volumes which contain
more than 8000 laureate theses from the seventeenth and eitghteenth
centuries from German universities which treat various scientific
and humanistic arguments which constitute a large cross-section
of the German culture of those centuries which might not exist anywhere
else. In these halls the major part of scientific and cultural meetings
have taken place and have made the Etruscan Academy famous in its
three centuries of existence.
The layout of the present day library unfolds on the mezzanine.
This comes from the consolidation of the civic and academy museums
which took place in 1778 and contains more than 30,000 printed volumes,
1172 parchments, 133 incunabula, 620 sheepskin and paper manuscripts,
material which has all been classified and catalogued for the easy
consultation of scholars.
THE COMUNAL HISTORICAL ARCHIVE
Houses the most ancient documents from the civic history of Cortona.
MUSEO DEL CAPITOLO DELLA CATTEDRALE
The Diocese museum is located in front of the cathedral in the architectural
comples of Gesù. It was expanded on at the initiative of
Monsignor Giuseppe Franciolini in 1945 with the restructuring a
a building annexed where along with the custodians quarters and
the museum's administration office, space was made on two floors
for additional exhibit halls. The museum winds through nine exhibit
halls and holds works of art which date fro the second century after
Christ to modern art from this century. The artwork is mainly from,
the churches of the city and moved here for reasons of conservation
and safety. It is ovious as hapens in all museums that the visitor
must strain himself a bit to reconnect the artworks to the churches
which he has visited to be able to better enjoy their beauty.
The halls and artwork are summarized in the table posted at the
entrance to the museum where a detailed guide book is for sale.
Here the most important works of the museum are briefly described.
Passing through Sala 1 (Hall 1) where a magnificent sarcophagus
from the second century is kept (decribed later on page 87), in
Sala 2 (Hall2) painted fourteenth century works from the schools
of Arezzo and Siena are kept. Works to admire are:
STORIES FROM THE LIFE OF SAINT MARGARET OF CORTONA The wooden tableau
is attributed to a painter from the school of Margaritone of Arezzo
(XIV century) and might have served for the first burial site of
the saint (description on page 90).
CHRIST CARRYING THE CROSS This is a fragment of a fresco removed
from a demolished wall of the old church of Santa Margherita which
was painted around the year 1335. It is attributed to Lorenzetti
due to the dramatic expression, the face of Christ lined with physical
and mental fatigue as he carries the cross.
MADONNA ENTHRONED WITH CHILD AND FOUR ANGELS. This wooden tableau
was painted around the year 1320 and is signed by the painter with
a Latin verse which reads, Pietro di Lorenzo of Siena with ability
he painted it.
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