The Public Central Library of Rethymnon is one of the largest in Greece and the only Public Library in Crete.

Rethymnon has a tradition of letters that is preserved to this day with the phrases "the people of Rethymnon for letters" or "city of letters and arts". This tradition has its basis in the period of the Venetian occupation, when, really, there was a great flourishing of letters and arts in Rethymno.

The first information about the existence of libraries in Rethymnon, even private ones, goes back to this period. These are the libraries of the Rethymnon scholars of the Renaissance, Antonio Kallergis (1521-1555) and Francis Barotsis (1537-1604). The deuteronomy's library, in addition to the first examples of printing, also included one of the richest collections of manuscript codices, part of which is now kept in the Bodleian Library in Oxford.