Presentation
History
The National Central Library of Rome was inaugurated March 14th 1876 in a hall of the monumental 16th century Palace of the "Collegio Romano", centre of the ancient Bibliotheca Secreta or Major of Jesuits. This Bibliotheca constituted the original core of the new institution together with the manuscripts and printed books of 69 libraries devolved to the Reign of Italy after the suppression of religious corporations of Rome in 1873.
One century later, the library was transferred in the new site, into the archaeological area of Castro Pretorio, between the "Città universitaria" and Termini station, realized from the project of the architects Massimo Castellazzi, Tullio Dell'Anese and Annibale Vitellozzi.
Inaugurated January 31st 1975, the new architectonic complex - made with reinforced glass and aluminum, in an area of 50.000 square metres - is divided into 4 parts: books' deposit, developed on 10 floors; the offices, entrance hall and all the spaces designed for exhibitions, developed on 5 floors; the Conference Hall as a single structure; reading rooms on a single floor, crossed by a wide central gallery.
The internal spaces reserved for the public have been recently restructured according to the requirements of a modern library.
Architectural barriers have been completely removed. The realization of the project, which privileged curved elements and last generation materials, has increased book's distribution places; reading rooms have been expanded and organized in thematic areas; new meeting and seminar rooms have been created, as well as a cafè and a bookshop, and the internal gardens have been tide up. External spaces have also been reorganized with the erection of an Amphitheatre and with a simple approach road lighted up by street lamps.
Lately, the Exhibition Hall area has been replanned and thanks to this, it has been adjusted to every kind of need requested for the improvement and valorisation of cultural heritages.
Institutional duties
The duties of the National central Library of Rome are: collecting and storing the Italian publishing production, documenting the main foreign productions and in particular the ones dealing with our country, producing national bibliographical services, spreading and making available its resources. (DPR n.417 del 1995).
To comply at its institutional purposes, the Library, through the Legal Deposit and Minor Publications Office , receives from Editors or from the responsible publications, a copy of everything that is published in whole the territory of our country, according to law DPR 252/2006.
The increase of the National collections, also guaranteed from purchases and donations , has favoured through the historical time of humanistic field, without neglecting the evolution of scientific studies.
The Library cares about the "List of the Foreign Modern Works" publication (BOMS ) since 1886 and it took care of the "General Index of Incunabula" publication,1943-1981 (IGI). In 1989 the Library constituted the National Centre for the Study of Manuscripts , which conserves more than 100.000 manuscripts microfilm owned by the main public and private Italian libraries.
