Libraries & Institutions

The Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (Italian National Institute of Statistics) is a public-research organization. It has been present in Italy since 1926 and is the main producer of official statistics in the service of citizens and policymakers. ISTAT operates in complete independence and continuous interaction with the academic and scientific communities. Many of its more recent publications are accessible online. ISTAT’s library contains over 600,000 volumes and 2,700 current periodicals focusing on statistical and socioeconomic subjects. Its historical archive preserves all documents produced by the institute.

Via Cesare Balbo, 16, 00184 Rome
tel. 06 46732380 and biblio[at]istat.it

The Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione ed il Restauro (ISCR), affiliated to the Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo, is specialized in the restoration and conservation of the cultural heritage. It has laboratories, archives and the specialized library Biblioteca Adolfo Venturi, holding approximately 56,000 volumes, of which approximately 900 are periodical publications. For further information please consult the ISCR's homepage.

Via di San Michele 23-25, 00153 Rome
tel. 06 6723 6300 or icr[at]cultura.gov.it

The Institutum Romanum Finlandiae was established in Villa Lante on the Janiculum Hill in 1950 as a base for Finnish students and scholars in the fields of humanities working in Italy. It has a fine library with a special focus on Latin epigraphy, Roman topography, Roman history, and classical philology, with some 21,000 volumes and 200 periodicals. It is a member both of the URBiS library network and URBS libraries network (Unione Romana Biblioteche Scientifiche). For further information (e.g., access, opening hours, events), please consult the institute’s homepage.

Passeggiata del Gianicolo 10, 00165 Rome
tel. 06 6861995 or info[at]irfrome.org

PLEASE NOTE that Villa Lante is undergoing a renovation 2023-2025 and the Institute’s temporary seat is at Via Garibaldi 31.

The Istituto Centrale per il Restauro e la Conservazione del Patrimonio Archivistico e Librario (ICRCPAL) is a specialized institute dedicated to the restoration, conservation, and protection of library and archivistic materials. It has laboratories, archives of photographic and historical material, digital collections of various materials, a museum, and a specialized library, containing approximately 15,000 monographic and approximately 400 serial publications. For further information about access, opening hours, library services, and more, please consult the ICRCPAL’s website.

Via Milano, 76, 00184 Rome
tel. 06 482911 or ic-pal.biblioteca[at]cultura.gov.it

The International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) is an intergovernmental organization at the service of its member states. It is the only institution of its kind with a worldwide mandate to promote the conservation of all types of cultural heritage. ICCROM contributes to preserving cultural heritage through five areas of activity: training, information, research, cooperation, and advocacy. ICCROM has archives (including an image collection of more than 230,000 analogue photographs, architectural drawings, motion pictures and more), and a specialized library that is one of the world’s leading conservation libraries, with more than 128,000 catalog entries and over 2,300 journal titles. ICCROM is member of the URBiS library network. For further information about access, library services, opening hours, workshops, and other events, please consult ICCROM’s homepage. Many of ICCROM’s publications are available online (free access). 

Via di San Michele 13, 00153 Rome 
tel. 06 585531 or iccrom[at]iccrom.org

The library of the Fondazione Marco Besso, established 1918 by Marco Besso himself, follows the interests of its founder: the collections (approximately 70,000 volumes plus 700 periodicals) regard Rome, Dante, paremiology, and the Tuscia area. The Roman section is one of the most important private collections in Italy. The paremiology section is among the rarest and most unique in existence. The library also has an archive and a sizable collection of antique prints and photographs of the monuments, vistas, and important sites in the city of Rome, many of which have since disappeared. For further information (e.g., access, opening hours, etc.), please consult the Fondazione’s website.

Largo di Torre Argentina, 11, 00186 Rome
tel. 06 6819 2984 or biblioteca[at]fondazionemarcobesso.net

The EEHAR is a research center belonging to the National Agency Consejo Superior de Investigacíones Científicas (CSIC), the main Spanish public institute for research. It has a small (23,000 volumes and 431 journals) but fine library specialized on the history and archaeology of classical antiquity, with a particular focus on the Iberian peninsula. The EEHAR library is member of the URBiS library network. For further information, please consult the school’s homepage.

Via di Sant'Eufemia 13, 00187 Rome
tel. 06 6810 0001 or escuela[at]eehar.csic.es or biblioteca[at]eehar.csic.es

The École Française de Rome (EFR), founded in 1875, is one of the leading foreign institutions for research in humanities in Rome. It has a splendid library, holding more than 200,000 volumes and approximately 2,000 periodicals. The holdings cover, additionally to the library’s main focus on the Mediterranean in ancient and medieval times, including church history, also history and other fields of the humanities and social sciences from prehistory to the present day. The EFR’s library houses probably the best collection of medieval studies in Rome and is member of the URBiS library network. For further information (access, opening hours, or events at the EFR), please consult EFR’s homepage.

Palazzo Farnese, Piazza Farnese 67, 00186 Rome
tel. 06 6860 1427 or accueil.bibliotheque[at]efrome.it

The Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Rom (DAI), founded in 1829 as the Istituto di corrispondenza archeologica, is the oldest research institute for archaeology in Rome and has both a library and a photographic archive of international importance. The library, one of the largest specialized research libraries for classical archaeology worldwide, holds over 240,000 volumes and 1,895 periodicals (click here to access the catalog), focusing on Graeco-Roman antiquity, including epigraphy, late antiquity and the archaeology and history of the Roman provinces. The DAI is member of the URBiS library network. The DAI regularly issues research reports (since 2014 in electronic format; the annual research reports are to be consulted here). See also the iDAI, a new approach to archaeology online.

Via Sardegna 79/81, 00187 Rome
tel. 06 488 8141 or bibliothek.rom[at]dainst.de

The library Biblioteca Luigi Chiarini is the largest institution in Italy specializing in the field of cinematography. It contains over 155,000 items (plus digitalized material, click here) of reference material (monographs, periodicals, scripts, a collection of press cuttings related to cinematographic subjects, and more). Many of the library’s literary assets have come from private collections of directors, scriptwriters, producers, and famous professionals from the world of Italian cinema. The Fondazione CSC also includes a film archive, a photographic archive and a posters archive.

Via Tuscolana 1520 and 1524, 00173 Rome
tel. 06 722941 or biblioteca[at]fondazionecsc.it