The Eighteenth-Century Hall of the University Library of Cagliari

In the 1764 founding act of the University of Cagliari, a paragraph is dedicated to the University Library. Its character as an institution open to the public was immediately established. The library would be housed in the University building under construction (the design of which was entrusted to the young Piedmontese military architect Saverio Belgrano di Famolasco), in a large room on the first floor, designed by another Piedmontese military architect, Giacinto Marciotti. The room, today known as the Sala Settecentesca (Eighteenth-Century Hall), originally called the Sala Grande or Salone, is a large rectangular space, approximately twenty meters long, eight meters wide, and seven and a half meters high, with large windows overlooking the harbor. The double row of shelves, lacquered in a beautiful ivory color with gold friezes, entirely occupies the walls to the right and left of the room, while a gallery, accessed by a steep staircase hidden by a small door located to the right of the entrance, winds around the four sides of the room. The shelves were made by the Cagliari craftsman Angelo Cardu, initially painted dark red, and later a color similar to the current one, which brought greater brightness to the room. The vault had a false ceiling decorated with the coat of arms of the Savoy dynasty. The original floor was slate. The room, first endowed with regulations in 1785, under Victor Amadeus III , was opened to the public in 1792. It was both a place for storing books and a reading room equipped with wooden tables and chairs. Reading in the room was limited to hours when natural light could be exploited, to avoid the use of flame-based lighting (lamps fueled by fuel oil or candles), thus minimizing the risk of fire.

Over the years, modifications were made: the original false ceiling was replaced with skylights; Subsequently, a canvas decorated with floral motifs was attached to the wooden structure, and finally, in more recent times, a gold-decorated false ceiling was adopted, from which large Murano glass chandeliers hung. Photographs of some of these steps exist. Over the years, the ancient slate floor was also replaced with one of black marble squares, interspersed with white tiles, later dismantled and covered with carpet.
In 1987, the Hall was deemed unfit for use and closed to the public. In the late 1990s, a meticulous restoration project restored it to its former glory. The skylights and marble floor were restored. The Hall was reopened to the public in 1999-2000, and since then, it has served as a reception hall, hosting various cultural events: conferences, book presentations, conventions, concerts, and guided tours.

The first core of the Library housed in the “great hall” consisted of approximately eight thousand volumes, coming from the private collections of the Sovereign and Minister Bogino, as well as from the lecture notes that the professors of the various disciplines were required to donate, from the books printed in the Royal Printing House of Turin and in that of Cagliari, established in the same building as the University in 1770. This first core also includes books from the Jesuit convent of Santa Croce, after the first suppression of the Society of Jesus, which occurred in 1773. The rich library of the Jesuits, formerly owned by the bibliophile and judge of the Royal Audience Monserrato Rossellò , came to them as a testamentary bequest, after the death of Rossello, which occurred in 1613.
Currently, 11,800 volumes belonging to the ancient heritage are kept in the hall. These are mostly seventeenth- and eighteenth-century printed editions, along with a smaller number of books printed between 1801 and 1830, the year conventionally considered the transition from ancient to modern books. These books originate from the confiscation of assets belonging to religious congregations repeatedly suppressed in the nineteenth century, which came to the Library during the directorship of Vincenzo Angius, who reported on them in an 1873 report to the Ministry of Education.

The current format dates back to the 1960s and includes primarily books on theology, philosophy, and law, but also on science, history, geography, and literature. The texts are mostly in Latin and Spanish, with a small number in Italian and, for the scientific works, in French.
The room features several sculptures: the 19th-century bust of the historian Giuseppe Manno by the Alghero-born sculptor Moccia, and that of the painter and engraver Felice Melis Marini, created in the 20th century by Anna Cabras Brundo.

The room is enriched by a late nineteenth-century globe by the Turin geographer Cora, and a press for printing engravings, which belonged to the Cagliari artist Anna Marongiu Pernis, who died at a young age in 1941, to whom the Prints Cabinet is dedicated.