Biblioteca Casanatense

This was erected using a previous inheritance of 1655 of the library of Giambattista Castellani, chief physician of Gregory XV, together with 12,000 scudi for building a suitable edifice.

In addition to the library staff he provided for a college (theologi casanatenses) of six Dominicans with a doctor's degree of different nationalities (Italian, French, Spanish, German, English, Polish).

To honour his friend, Cloche had a statue of Cardinal Casanate made by his favourite sculptor Pierre Le Gros the Younger.

There, Casanate is framed by a noble wooden structure specifically constructed for that purpose by the Dominicans' architect Antonio Maria Borione and surmounted by the figure of St. Thomas Aquinas by the sculptor Bernardino Cametti.

The Casanatense still preserves 1125 manuscript volumes of opinions, reports, and statements (voti, relazioni, posizioni) concerning matters treated in the various Congregations to which Casanate belonged.

Interior of the Biblioteca Casanatense with the statue of Cardinal Girolamo Casanate
Tacuinum Sanitatis , Lombardy, late 14th century (Biblioteca Casanatense).