“Our cities are in urgent need of new libraries, where people can meet to connect both intellectually and emotionally: the ‘places of knowledge’ that forms the subject of this most original book.” Guido Martinotti Rethinking urban spaces, removing them from the logic of commercialization, transforming them into places for interpersonal relationships, exchange, joint action. The public library, long ignored by politics and whose informative role is today threatened by the internet, can become a territory open to groups and associations, a centre for meditation and the sharing of knowledge, the central hub in a network with other cultural institutions. In a country that appears increasingly knowledge-poor, which risks remaining at the margins of the knowledge economy, the public library must become part of a project for a second Italian renaissance, a place of liberty and creativity for all.