The first person with a vision for a public library in Venice was Francesco Petrarca, one of Italy’s foremost medieval writers. A century would pass before Cardinal Bessarion donated 750 codices and 250 manuscripts and printed works 'for the common good of mankind', effectively jumpstarting the library and making Petrarca's vision a reality. Ever since then, the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana has included rare and precious volumes in its collection, partly thanks to a 17th century law requiring all printers in the city to provide a copy of each printed text for the Library. Among the Library's most prized possessions are two Medieval codices containing the verses of Homer’s Iliad, including the one thought to be the most faithful to the poem’s 'original' verses, the Grimani Breviary, an illuminated manuscript considered one of the most important works of the Flemish Renaissance, as well as first editions by the Italian humanist Aldus Manutius.