Location & Office Hours
Library Hours:
| Weekdays: | 08:00 - 18:00 |
| Saturday: | 08:00 - 12:30 |
Library closes to the public on the following dates: |
|
| Summer period | July 15th - September 8th |
| Christmas period | December 24th - January 3rd |
| Easter period | Good Friday - Tuesday in Albis |
Other Holidays |
|
| November 1 | All Saints |
| December 8 | Immaculate Conception |
| January 6 | Epiphany of the Lord |
| April 25 | Italian Civil holiday |
| May 1 | St. Joseph, the Worker |
| June 2 | Italian Civil holiday |
| June 29 | Feasts of Sts Peter and Paul, Patron Saints of the City of Rome |
About
The Library of the Pontifical Biblical Institute was founded by Pope St. Pius X on May 7, 1909 with an apostolic letter Vinea Electa together with the Institute itself, to promote higher studies in sacred writing and related sciences.
The Library had, for a short period of time, the Leonian College as its temporary head office, which then moved to Piazza della Pilotta, in the ancient palace of the Marquis Muti Papazzurri. The building was designed in its final architecture by Mattia de ‘Rossi pupil of Bernini. Inside, the gallery with frescoes is of particular value, and its
iconographic program is attributed to Giovan Francesco Grimaldi, best known as “Il Bolognese”.
The Library, well-known among scholars from all over the world, occupies two floors of the Muti-Papazzurri building. Most of its patrimony is allocated in the central hall, an area distributed on three levels with shelving and ballads, harmonized in an Art Nouveau style, typical of early twentieth century architecture.
The original book collection are copies of the Vatican Apostolic Library enriched thanks to contributions from the Institute’s professors
with rare volumes and books pertinent to teaching in the Biblical and Ancient Near East fields.
Father Leopold Fonck, S.J., the first rector of the Institute, gets the credit of having ordered the part of the biblical fund and of having given it an ecumenical approach and a scientific direction.
The Library specializes in Biblical and Oriental studies: biblical exegesis and auxiliary sciences (Semitic and Greek philology), history of exegesis of all Christian and even Jewish centuries, archeology of the Ancient Near East (Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Anterior Asia, Egypt, western Iran) from the protohistoric era until the 1st century.
Latest Acquisitions
Roman Union Ecclesiastical Libraries (URBE)
The Library of the Pontifical Biblical Institute is associated with the Roman Union of Ecclesiastical Libraries, officially established on May 13, 1991.
The Roman Union of Ecclesiastical Libraries is an ecclesiastical and cultural association based in Rome, an autonomous and non-profit organization.
The purpose of URBE is to make available to its users a large, efficient and knowledgeable service.
For this reason URBE offers to guide, coordinate and manage cooperation between all Roman ecclesiastical libraries.
The cultural heritage reflected in the URBE Associated Libraries is considerable, not only for the quantity of documents, but most of all for the heritage represented by these venerable Institutions and the specializations they offer in the field of academic studies.
You can obtain the following:
- Volumes and brochures 3,400,000;
- Incunabula 29;
- Cinquecentine 5.936;
- Manuscripts 2,152;
- Current periodicals 9,800;
- Discontinued Periodicals 14,200;
- Microfilms 14,700.
Specialized resources include:
- Biblical and Oriental studies (Biblicum)
- Greek and Eastern Patristics, Theology and History of the Christian East (Orientale)
- Moral studies (Alphonsianum)
- Mariological studies (Marianum)
- Ecumenical studies (Pro Unione Center)
- Missiology studies (Urbaniana)
- Liturgy (Anselmianum)
More information about U.R.B.E.
