The Marciana Library in Venice is one of the earliest surviving public
libraries and repositories for manuscripts in Italy and holds one of the
world's most significant collections of classical texts. Named after
Saint Mark, the patron saint of Venice, it was founded in 1468 when the
humanist scholar Cardinal Bessarion donated his collection of Greek and
Latin codices to Venice as a means of preserving the writings of the
classical Greek authors and the literature of Byzantium after the fall
of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks. It is the only institution
established by the Venetian government that continues to function. The
original building, now largely a museum, was constructed from 1537 to
1588. It is considered to be the masterpiece of Jacopo Sansovino and is
a key work in Venetian Renaissance architecture. Since 1904, the library
offices and most of the collection have been housed in the adjoining
Zecca, the former Venetian mint.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblioteca_Marciana>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1708:
Jacobite risings: A French fleet anchored near Fife Ness as
part of a planned French invasion of Britain.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_French_invasion_of_Britain_%281708%29>
1911:
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City killed
146 sweatshop workers, many of whom could not escape because the doors
to the stairwells and exits had been locked.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire>
1949:
The Soviet Union began mass deportations of more than 90,000
people from the Baltic states to Siberia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Priboi>
1971:
Vietnam War: South Vietnamese forces abandoned a campaign to
cut off the Ho Chi Minh trail, which supplied North Vietnamese troops,
in Laos.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Lam_Son_719>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
adytum:
1. (Ancient Greece, religion) The innermost sanctuary or shrine in an
ancient temple, from where oracles were given.
2. (by extension) A private chamber; a sanctum.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/adytum>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
In my opinion we learn nothing from history except the infinite
variety of men’s behaviour. We study it, as we listen to music or read
poetry, for pleasure, not for instruction.
--A. J. P. Taylor
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A._J._P._Taylor>