Close to Piazza del Duomo is the Ambrosian Library (Biblioteca Ambrosiana), named after Ambrose, the patron saint of Milan and founded by Cardinal Federico Borromeo.
There are some 12,000 drawings by European artists, from the 14th through the 19th centuries, books and precious manuscripts, including the Leonardo codices, requisitioned by the French during the Napoleonic occupation, and only partly returned after 1815 or the Muratorian fragment, of ca 170 AD, the earliest example of a Biblical canon.
The building was damaged in World War II, with the loss of the archives of opera libretti of La Scala, but was restored in 1952 and underwent major restorations in 1990-1997.
