By the fifteenth century, the movement of people, texts, and Greek manuscripts had become increasingly intense: the treasures of Greek culture were gradually transferred to the West, and after centuries, the Greek language and its literature once again returned to be studied and read. This remarkable flow of knowledge gave rise to the great library collections that still preserve the majority of what survives of ancient Greek written production — collections that form the very foundation of our modern printed editions.

The search for Greek books unfolded in two main ways: by recovering manuscripts from the libraries of southern Italy and the Eastern Roman Empire — by the mid-fifteenth century largely under Turkish control — and through vigorous copying efforts (see 2.3). Beyond private patronage, rulers played a significant role. Among the best-known examples is Janus Lascaris’ expedition in 1492, commissioned by Lorenzo de’ Medici to acquire Greek books, which became the core of the Medici private Greek collection, today housed in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana. Similarly, Cardinal Bessarion’s 1468 bequest to the Republic of Venice laid the foundations of the Greek holdings at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana.

By the late sixteenth century, the young Federico Borromeo, during his first stay in Rome, frequented libraries and private collections at a moment when Pope Sixtus V had just inaugurated the splendid new premises of the Vatican Library. Together with the Library of San Lorenzo at El Escorial, inaugurated by Philip II in 1584, and the Bodleian Library, founded in 1602, these institutions inspired Borromeo’s vision for the Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana: a library conceived not merely as a repository for books, but as a center of learning, «an enterprise of perpetual usefulness… far beyond the ideas and customs of the time» (A. Manzoni). Opened on 8 December 1609, it continues to serve, even today, a vibrant community of readers, students, and scholars.