The range of cultural options Emilia-Romagna has to offer is exceptionally diversified, not to mention widespread all over the region’s territory. Indeed, some of the most prominent national libraries are to be found in Emilia-Romagna. Out of the many, the Panizzi library in Reggio Emilia, a vital cultural hub characterised by a network of decentralised branches in the city, deserves special recognition. The Civic Library was founded in 1796, when the city rebelled against the rule of the Duke of Este and proclaimed the foundation of the Reggiana Republic, which later became part of Cispadania first and then of the Cisalpina Republic. The library was first opened to a limited public of scholars on 31 January 1798. Later on, access was granted to increasingly larger portions of the population. After World War II, the Municipal Library and the Popular Civic Library were merged into a single subject, the Panizzi Library. Such library is named after the patriot, librarian, and member of the Carbonari society, Antonio Genesio Maria Panizzi, who in London served as the director of the British Museum library, making it the top library in the world, with a collection of over five hundred thousand books.
Today, Panizzi Library in Reggio Emilia has six decentralised branches, with the main one housed in Palazzo San Giorgio, built by the Society of Jesus opposite the church of the same name between 1701 and 1720, on the design of the architect Giuseppe Torri from Bologna and the Jesuit Gian Paolo Scaratti.