Library (Сан-Лоренсо-де-Эль-Эскориал)

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The Regia Laurentina is one of the most important historic libraries in the world. It contains almost 45,000 printed works from the 15th and 16th centuries, and some 5,000 manuscripts in Arabic, Latin, and Spanish. Its original furnishings are in an excellent state of preservation. The ceiling is decorated with frescoes by Italian Pellegrino Tibaldi related to the sciences and learning.

During the reign of Phillip II, there was an entire room dedicated to ancient manuscripts in Latin, Greek, Arabic, Aramaic, Italian, French and Spanish. This included books confiscated during the Inquisition. There were approximately 1,800 Arabic titles, most of them obtained during the expulsion of Muslims from Islamic Iberia.[9] Since the library was protected from inquisitional oversight, it preserved many prohibited books that were thought to be expunged. The only known copy of the Kitab al-I'tibar, a 12th-century Syrian autobiography, was discovered there in the 19th century. By 1602, the library had a large cartographic collection and over 150 mathematical instruments