SEEPAGE OF WATER, A SMALL PART OF THE BIBLIOTECA MARCIANA’S CEILING FALLS

The director of the Biblioteca Marciana, Maurizio Messina, had reported this to the Corriere del Veneto some time ago: unrepaired water seepage from the ceiling is a threat to the historic Biblioteca Marciana. Unfortunately he was right and last Monday around 3 pm it gave way (see photo by Andrea Pattaro/Vision), as reported in an extensive article in the Corriere del Veneto today, ‘a small portion of about one metre of ceiling, in what is known to all as ‘la callesella’, a suspended corridor that was the original division between the Zecca building and the Sansovino’s historic library, roofed over in 1905 and filled with shelves and books when the new reading room was created. The material that fell was mainly plaster and brick debris’. This fall was luckily restricted but it is a warning bell for the monuments in the St Mark’s area and the library itself. The director Messina pointed out that there is also seepage in the reading room and last winter rainwater leaked in. The situation has now become more dangerous and the money for restoration work is unfortunately slow in arriving.