The building now occupied by the "Dèlfico" Library is perhaps the most significant example of civil architecture in the city. Designed, built and expanded in some parts between the late 18th century and the first half of the 19th, only the facade on via Dèlfico and the corresponding wing of the piano nobile (main floor) remain from the original structure and design. It was built at the behest of the Dèlfico brothers - Giamberardino, Melchiorre and Gianfilippo - just in front of the first Palazzo Dèlfico built in the 16th century (almost opposite the new building, on the portal, you can see the family coat of arms and the inscription Veteres ferendo novae invitantur iniuriae 1552; while on the specular portal, on Corso S. Giorgio, next to the coat of arms you can read the motto Eat in posteros delphica Laurus). The building was erected to highlight and emphasize the decorum and the solidity of the Dèlfico family and to underline its significant political and cultural role. You can access the building through an important portal embellished by the coat of arms of the Dèlfico and De Filippis families which have merged in 1820 when Marina Dèlfico and Gregorio de Filippis joined in marriage. After the large entrance hall, on the right, you will find the grandiloquent scala nobile (noble staircase) with its double ramp, large gallery and elegant modern balustrade.
The grandeur and airiness of the staircase are increased by a series of plaster statues turned in terracotta, dating back to the first decades of the 19th century and which depict Greek and Roman Gods of Mount Olympus. It is also enhanced by the wooden coffered ceiling that replaced the original domed vault which was demolished during the renovations of the mid-20th century. In the "noble" wing of the building, which today hosts the ancient collection and manuscripts of the library, tempera-painted vaults dating back to the early 19th century presents allegorical scenes evoking mythological themes. The walls of the entire wing are embellished with important wooden furnishings of the 18th-19th century, among which a gothic style bookcase, dating back to 1853 and signed by Erasmo Illuminati (an artist native from Atri), stands out.
The entire Library, which covers three floors and a covered courtyard used as reading room, constitutes a unique bibliographic and documentary corpus of the highest quality (there are about 300,000 volumes and pamphlets preserved among which parchment collections, incunabula, cinquecentine (16th century publications), but also the “libro bullonato” (bolted book) by Fortunato Depero).
But it is also a large museum-pinacotheque with an important collection of works of art from various periods: sculptures by Severino Castorani, Raffaello Pagliaccetti, Pasquale Morganti, Francesco Paolo Evangelista, Luigi Cavacchioli, Nicola D'Antino, Enrico Saroldi, Augusto Murer, as well as oil paintings, watercolours, drawings, xylographs by numerous painters who represented artistic culture not only in the region between the 19th and early 20th centuries: Giuseppe Casciaro, Fausto Zonearo, Gennaro Della Monica, Pasquale Celommi, Alfonsino Muzii, Gaetano Esposito, Anselmo Di Giuseppe, Maria Palma Mezzopreti, Salvatore Fumo, Giovanni Melarangelo, Guido Montatuti, Alberto Chiarini. An ensemble of works of art and antique furniture that gives the "Dèlfico" a welcoming and exclusive atmosphere that adds value to this great cultural institution.
Traduzione: classe 3BLL del Liceo linguistico statale Giannina Milli
