On May 11, 1931 by unifying the Benedictine Municipal Library then Civic, with the Library Ursino Recupero was born the Ente Morale Biblioteche Riunite ?Civica e A. Ursino Recupero?.
The Civic Library finds its origin in the forfeiture by the State Property Office in 1868, and subsequently ceded to the Municipal Administration, of the ancient Library of the Monastery of San Nicolò l?Arena, founded by Vito Maria Amico and Nicolò Maria Riccioli in the first half of the ?700s and from the ?Libraries? of the other suppressed religious Congregations of Catania. Then, in 1925, upon the death of Baron Antonio Ursino Recupero, the Municipality inherited its Library full of over 41,000 volumes.
