A patterned red terracotta floor, stained glass windows designed by Francesco Salviati, and a ceiling of wood matching its rows of benches and desks comprise the nearly 170 foot long rectangular hall that forms its reading room.
A patterned red terracotta floor, stained glass windows designed by Francesco Salviati, and a ceiling of wood matching its rows of benches and desks comprise the nearly 170 foot long rectangular hall that forms its reading room. The difficulty of constructing it within the confines of an existing monastic building may explain the existence of such bizarre features as Tuscan columns that act as wall decorations rather than supports, and doors and windows that lead to boarded up stone niches in the walls. Its crowning feature, described as a vision from a dream in the designer's letter to Vasari, is an approach consisting of an elliptical pietra serena staircase in Mannerist style, spawning two additional rectangular side stairways at its center and sculpted by Bartolomeo Ammannati after the designer's clay model. FTP, name this late work of Michelangelo at the order of Clement VII, a famous Florence book depository of the Medicis.
A patterned red terracotta floor, stained glass windows designed by Francesco Salviati, and a ceiling of wood matching its rows of benches and desks comprise the nearly 170 foot long rectangular hall that forms its reading room.
{Laurentian Library} or {Laurentine Library} or La {Biblioteca} Mediceo-{Laurenziana} (accept any answer that mentions “library” and “San Lorenzo” as well)