Biblioteca Teresiana

The Imperial Royal Library of Mantua was opened to the public on 30 March 1780, in accordance with the vast program of secularization and reform of cultural and educational institutions launched in 1749 by Maria Teresa of Austria.
In fact, the enlightened policy of the Habsburg empire corresponded, in the Lombardy area, to the foundation of a homogeneous structure of public libraries arranged throughout the territory, almost always in the convent buildings of the Society of Jesus, suppressed in 1773, with the Pertusati Library of Milan at the top, which in 1786 took the name of Braidense, and the University Library of Pavia.
Around those same years, Cremona Library and, shortly afterwards, those of Como and Lodi saw the light on the territory of Lombardia.