A team from the culture ministry on Friday was set to recover medieval manuscripts from the rubble of L'Aquila's state archives following Monday's earthquake.

The prefecture that housed the archives was completely flattened by the cupola of the next door 18th-century Baroque church of St Augustine in the disaster.

The culture ministry said the operation will involve recovering around four kilometres of shelves of manuscripts, books and rare documents, which will be taken to the state archives in the Abruzzo town of Sulmona for safe-keeping.