The Chapter Library (Piazza Duomo, 13), is one of the oldest and most famous ecclesiastical libraries in Europe, probably it already existed in the Vth century as a scriptorium: a center of test transcriptions attached to the Priestly School, the corporation of the Canons of the Cathedral. The bibliographic collection is particularly important for the history of ancient liturgy and canon law. Among the codes of the Vth century there is a collection of the Gospels written with gold and silver on purple parchment, a Roman law code re-used in the schedule for the works of Saint Jerome and other Fathers, a code with the most ancient canon of the mass. There are also preserved manuscripts from the Xth century onwards. The library was active until the VIIth century when a tragic circumstance provoked the loss of the oldest part of the collection. Removed to give it a new collocation, it was lost because of the death of most of the canons in the plague of 1630-31. Its founding (on the top of a cupboard) in 1712 by Scipione Maffei was a memorable event in the history of culture of Verona. Maffei also acquired important works for the library, to which also left his books and his papers.

Home Page The XVIIIth reading room has been reconstructed after the destruction during the World War II. Previously installed in Piazza Duomo, 19, the museum has been expanded his area of exposure, including the western and northern wings of the cloister of canons. The collection contains paintings and sculptures, especially of Verona’s school from the XIIIth to the XIXth century and liturgical objects of different ages and origins. Among the most important pieces, two paintings of the Madonna and Child by Francesco Morone and Liberale da Verona, a group of tables from the workshop of the "Master of the head of carnation" (Antonio Badile), a large altarpiece by Michele da Verona (already in the Maffei chapel into the cathedral), to Scipione Maffei's Portrait by Fra 'Galgario.

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