From 1 October 2026 to 12 January 2027, the Biblioteca Capitolare in Verona is hosting the new temporary exhibition ‘The Rediscovered Library. Scipione Maffei: A Scholar and His Legacy’, dedicated to Scipione Maffei (Verona, 1675–1755), one of the leading figures of 18th-century Italian culture, and his deep connection with the Capitolare Library.

The exhibition traces the life and interests of the Veronese scholar through the manuscripts he studied and rediscovered, the precious volumes bequeathed to the Library in his will, autograph materials and first editions of his works.

A central part of the exhibition is devoted to the famous rediscovery, in 1712, of the Capitolare’s antique and medieval codices, which had been believed lost for over a century. Among these, Codex XXXIX will be on display: the sole surviving manuscript of Cassiodorus’s ‘Complexiones’, dating from the 6th century and published by Maffei in 1721.

The exhibition also presents a selection of the more than fifty manuscripts donated by Maffei to the Library: illuminated manuscripts, historical and literary works, epigraphic collections and humanistic texts. Among the items on display are the 14th-century manuscript by Gidino da Sommacampagna, the sole surviving copy of his treatise on rhythm; Giovanni Mansionario’s ‘Historia Imperialis’; and Pier Candido Decembrio’s ‘Epitome of Plutarch’s Lives’.