Memory of the World; 2012 - unesdoc - Unesco

in a uniform style, to the codices owned by the convent and
to the bequest of manuscripts from Giovanni di Marco, his
personal physician. Their bindings conferred a uniform
appearance on the corpus of the Cesena manuscripts,
all of which are still linked by their original 15th-century
chains to the same reading benches.
The variety of genres demonstrates the founder’s
desire to establish a universal collection for public use.
The collection only included volumes in Latin, Greek and
Hebrew. However, the library’s catalogue is not confined
to the most illustrious examples of classical literature but
is enriched by ancient treatises on science and technology,
ranging from geographers to mathematicians, doctors,
students of agriculture and the authors of naturalist
encyclopedias. There are also translations of the major
� A book open on a reading desk, showing
the chain that secures the book.
An example of the illuminated manuscripts
held in the Malatesta Novello Library �
143