Amazing Library

Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana (Laurentian Library) Florence, Italy. Commissioned in 1523, construction startedin 1525 and was finishedby 1571. Michelangelo left in 1534 due to falling out of favor with the Medici family. The designs were carried about by Tribolo, Basari and Ammannati with instructions from Michelangelo. The Laurentian Library was a unique challenge for Michelangelo as the parameters for the building were constrained to the exisiting structure and urban landscape of the Basillica di San Lorenzo di Firenze. Originally the library was just the vestibule and reading room but in the first half of the 19th century the Rotunda Tribuna D'Elci was added in order to house a book cllection of the world renowned bibliophile and scholar Angelo Maria D'Elci (1754-1824). While this library holds a very important collection of rare works it is also considered to be a pivotal point in the evolution of architectural theory, there was before the Laurentian Library and then there was after. Michelangelo's designs were a big departure from the of the classical aesthetic established by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 85 - c.20 bc), better known as Vitruvius. Georgio Vasari (from the "life of Michelangelo" in lives of the Most Eminent Italian Architects, painters ad Sculptors [1550,1568]) states.