Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana

Hidden at the end of the cloister just to the left of San Lorenzo’s main entrance, this library was founded by Medici pope Clement VII in the 1520s for the safe-keeping of his family’s invaluable collection of books and manuscripts. Architectural historians go gaga over the mannerist-style vestibule and reading room designed by Michelangelo. He borrowed materials and motifs from Brunelleschi’s adjacent church, yet breaks rule after architectural rule. For example, he uses structural elements that serve no structural purpose and crowding decorative elements so that they are crowded to overlapping. The effect is a kind of sublime unease, almost claustrophobia.