Home › Eat › Food lore & archives › Biblioteca Internazionale La Vigna, Vicenza
EAT BEYOND THE OBVIOUS
The 62,000 volume library every food and wine lover should know in Vicenza
A wine obsession became one of Italy’s great food libraries
Biblioteca Internazionale La Vigna · Palazzo Brusarosco Zaccaria · Vicenza
JF rameau · CC BY-SA 3.0
Know before you go
About
Biblioteca Internazionale La Vigna holds over 62,000 volumes on wine, viticulture, gastronomy, agriculture and rural culture, including around 2,700 historic books. Its shelves range from fifteenth century texts to Renaissance cookery, early studies of Italian wine, ampelography and modern food research. Italy’s Ministry of Culture declared the collection of exceptional cultural interest in 2020.
It all began with one book. In New York in 1951, Vicenza entrepreneur Demetrio Zaccaria bought Frank Schoonmaker’s Dictionary of Wines. That purchase became a lifelong international collection, eventually donated to Vicenza and still growing today.
EXPLORE THE COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS ↓
THREE BOOKS WORTH ASKING ABOUT
1486 · PIETRO DE’ CRESCENZI An incunabulum printed in Strasbourg, containing one of medieval Europe’s foundational texts on agriculture, vineyards, animals, hunting and fishing. 1596 · ANDREA BACCI De naturali vinorum historia surveys roughly 600 Italian wines and links them to place, growing conditions and production. It reads startlingly close to the modern language of terroir. BARTOLOMEO SCAPPI The cook of Pope Pius V left almost 1,000 recipes, together with remarkably detailed illustrations of Renaissance kitchen tools and equipment.
AND THEN THERE IS THE TRIPE
In 2026 La Vigna signed an agreement with the Accademia della Trippa, “Tripe Academy”, creating an international centre for research dedicated to quinto quarto, “the fifth quarter”, the traditional culinary world of offal. So among the rare wine books and Renaissance cookery sits a growing scholarly archive devoted to tripe. Which feels about right for a library serious enough about food to take every part of it seriously.
BOOK A GUIDED VISIT + ASK TO SEE THE RARE COLLECTIONS ↓
La Vigna organises guided visits by reservation for groups and schools. A visit can include the story of founder Demetrio Zaccaria, the historic rooms of Palazzo Brusarosco Zaccaria and a selection of particularly valuable books from the collection.
If you are interested in wine history, Renaissance cookbooks, historic gastronomy, grape varieties or another part of the collection, mention it when you book. The library can shape the visit around a specific subject, and consultation of books printed before 1830 is possible on site with prior authorisation.
Guided visits are by advance booking. For availability and fees, contact the library directly.
Biblioteca Internazionale La Vigna
Palazzo Brusarosco Zaccaria
Contrà Porta Santa Croce 3, Vicenza
+39 0444 543000
segreteria@lavigna.it