The so-called “Regional Library” (formerly National Library of Palermo), is situated in the ancient monastery of the Jesuits, whose library constitutes the core of the present-day collection. The Jesuits library was rich and wide, containing real bibliographic treasures.
This Library has had the great privilege of being the most important one in Palermo: here governors and administrators brought – across the years – the most relevant manuscripts and printed books that were once kept in smaller convents and monasteries in Palermo and in its sourroundings.
In this Library I found an unexpectedly large quantity of early Hebrew books. The majority of them belonged to the Jesuits’ collection, a smaller fund arrived from the monatery of “San Martino delle Scale” in Monreale (which collection was scattered in different libraries, especially to the Municipal Library of Palermo in “Casa Professa”), other books arrived from the Cappucini’s collection and some were even donated by the Ministry of Finance as “war repairs”.