The Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze is one of the two Italian legal deposit libraries (the other is in Rome), receiving a copy of every book published in Italy since 1886. The collection runs to over 5 million volumes, plus more than 25,000 manuscripts, 678 incunabula, and the famous Galileo collection — a large body of the scientist's personal manuscripts, correspondence, and working papers.
The library is housed in a purpose-built building on the Arno embankment south of Santa Croce, constructed after the old Uffizi location became inadequate. Readers can access the reading rooms with appropriate credentials. The manuscript and special collections room holds rotating exhibitions from the collection that are free and open to the public, and the building's Arno-side reading rooms, flooded in 1966 (the damage to the collection was catastrophic), are worth a visit for the view alone. The library is a working institution rather than a museum, but the occasional exhibitions justify a detour from the Santa Croce complex nearby.