Inaugurated on May 22, 1998, the library has been housed since 2018 in the premises of the Protestant Cultural Center, in a historic building on the Via Tasso, which, during the Renaissance, was the city suburb with the highest Waldensian concentration.
The library’s collection is naturally specialized; it contains 5,000 volumes dating from the 1700s to the contemporary age, all of which are Protestant in character and culture.
The areas are among the most varied: from history to biblical exegesis, from theology to literature, from philosophy to politics, from ethics to law to education.
The core of the collection consists of books from the Evangelical Christian Community of Bergamo.
Of particular value are the core of Italian and foreign biblical editions (18th-19th centuries) and the core of Italian first editions of Reformed texts.
The library is open to the public for loans and on-site consultation.
It has been a member of the National Library Service in the Lombardy Regional Pole since September 2012.
It is the ideal place to learn about Protestant history, not only Bergamasque but also European, and to find a confrontation free of denominational or cultural boundaries.
The facility also maintains thearchive of documents produced by the Bergamo Waldensian community between 1805 and 2002.
Prior to the recent inventory, the folders were kept inside a cabinet and chest according to the original management methods, which it was thus possible to study.
This also made it possible to verify the reliability of the instruments accompanying the archive drafted from 1846 onward.
Alongside this remarkable body of documentation is all the paperwork produced by the community’s administrative offices from 1903 to the present day.
The library is named after Girolamo Zanchi, the Bergamasque scholar who best embodies the cultural vocation of the place.
Born in Alzano Lombardo in 1516, he was a Protestant theologian of international influence, known for his numerous writings with an Aristotelian bent and for his erudition, combined with a keen interest in the practical problems of the Church.
The Protestant Cultural Center maintains the library and archives, overseeing its consultation on behalf of the Evangelical Christian Community of Bergamo.
Access is granted to all Italian and foreign citizens by appointment.