Museo Petrarchesco Piccolomineo

The Museum houses the collection of illuminated manuscripts, printed books and ancient works of art that Count Domenico Rossetti de Scander bequeathed to the Trieste Public Library in 1842. Second only to the foundation set up by Willard Fiske in the 19th century at Cornell University Library in Ithaca (NY - USA), the collection is richly endowed with 15th century manuscripts and editions, purchased from Umberto Saba’s Libreria Antiquaria in the 1930s. The Museum owns the first edition of Petrarch’s Canzoniere and Triumphs, printed in Venice in 1470 by the German Wendelin of Speyer, as well as important manuscripts, including a letter signed by Enea Silvio Piccolomini.