The Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana was commissioned by Pope Clement VII (Giulio de' Medici) in 1523 to house the Medici family's manuscript collection — one of the greatest in Europe. Michelangelo designed the reading room and vestibule, producing in the entrance hall one of the strangest and most original interiors of the Renaissance: a staircase that seems to flow like liquid stone, with columns recessed into the walls rather than projecting from them, inventing what would later be called Mannerism.
The library contains over 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books, including Virgil's works annotated by Petrarch and a 5th-century manuscript of Tacitus. Exhibitions change regularly, displaying different items from the collection. The reading room itself — a long barrel-vaulted hall with intarsia wooden desks along both walls — is a working space of extraordinary beauty. Access is through the cloister of San Lorenzo.