Biblioteca di Storia di Moderna e Contemporanea

The Biblioteca di storia moderna e contemporanea was established quite recently and was intended by the Italian parliament as resource for all documents pertaining to the unification process. The first collection of books, journals and documents on the Unitarian process was made at the Vittorio Emanuele II Rome National Library and was called the “Risorgimento Section”. In 1906 the Minister of Education, Paolo Boselli, proposed a project to create an Institute - a library and museum – to act as an archive of the Risorgimento, bringing the collection to the Vittorio Emanuele II monument. The project was approved and at the same time the National Committee for Risorgimento history was created, with the goal of improving bibliographic and document collection. Its activities and initiatives were fundamental for the enrichment of the new library sections. With the outbreak of the First World War, the Committee also started to collect bibliographic material and documents concerning the war, which at that time was considered the end of the Risorgimento period. In 1917 the library took the name of Risorgimento Library, Museum and Archive and become directly dependent on the Committee. In 1921 it was transferred to Palazzetto Venezia.