Home › Places › Museums & antique books › Libreria Palazzo Roberti
BEAUTIFUL BOOKSHOPS IN VICENZA
A Financial Times “most brilliant bookshop”, inside the Bassano palazzo where Napoleon slept
Buy a book inside a seventeenth century palazzo where Napoleon slept twice
A seventeenth century palazzo where Napoleon stayed twice now houses one of Italy’s most distinctive independent bookshops. Financial Times readers included it among their picks for the world’s most brilliant bookshops, while Architectural Digest placed it among nine of the world’s most beautiful. Books fill the ground floor and mezzanine; upstairs, the frescoed piano nobile hosts authors, concerts, exhibitions and workshops.
You have saved two places. Leave your email and you will find them on any device, plus the next drop.
Syrio · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Know before you go
The bookshop is open to the public, while talks, workshops and events follow their own calendar and may take place in different venues. Check the current programme before travelling for a specific event. Events Author talks, book clubs, workshops, readings, exhibitions and cultural events Phone +39 0424 522537 Email info@palazzoroberti.it Good to know
About
Come here for the unusual pleasure of buying a book or notebook inside a seventeenth century palazzo with Napoleon, Canova, Tiepolo school frescoes and a FT recommendation in its biography.
Financial Times readers selected Libreria Palazzo Roberti for a list of the world’s most brilliant bookshops, while Architectural Digest included it among nine of the world’s most beautiful.
NAPOLEON SLEPT HERE TWICE
During the Italian Campaign, Napoleon Bonaparte stayed at Palazzo Roberti on 8 September 1796 and again on 10 March 1797. A plaque on the exterior records his connection with the building.
CANOVA AND THE ROBERTI FAMILY
The palazzo also belonged to a family closely connected with Antonio Canova. Historical research on Bassano records the Roberti as friends of the sculptor and representatives in his affairs; Tiberio Roberti commissioned Canova’s Penitent Magdalene, completed in the 1790s.
LOOK UP
On the piano nobile, Giovanni Scajaro painted scenes from the story of Antony and Cleopatra in 1779. Scajaro worked within the Venetian decorative tradition shaped by Tiepolo, giving the room a reason to look upward before the event has even begun.
THE BOOKSHOP
The Manfrotto family restored Palazzo Roberti and opened the present independent bookshop here in 1998. Today the ground floor and mezzanine hold the books, while the piano nobile is used for cultural events. The business is managed by sisters Lavinia, Lorenza and Veronica Manfrotto.
FROM HATCHARDS TO BASSANO
Before Palazzo Roberti opened, the three Manfrotto sisters learned the trade in the family’s earlier bookshop. They also spent time working at Hatchards in Piccadilly, London, later borrowing ideas for shelving, furniture and editorial meetings when shaping the new store.
Before the ski lift there was the snòia: two runners, crosspieces and handles, for the snow and the ice.
The Vicenza Lexicon →