Coordinator: Dr Davide Dozio
The library specialises in archivistics, palaeography and diplomatics texts and journals (particularly on Lombard history and works that use the documentation preserved by the Archive).
Requested publications can be viewed in the study room and resources can be collected from Monday to Friday. Library books cannot be loaned.
It is possible to request resources (maximum 4 a day) in the following ways, indicating the author, title and location:
- at the reception desk (for consultations from Monday to Friday)
- by sending an email to as-mi.prenotazione[at]cultura.gov.it at least 24 hours in advance (for consultations from Monday to Saturday; for Saturday: by 10.00 a.m. on the preceding Friday)
The library catalogue can be consulted via the OPAC of the Lombardy Regional Hub, selecting the Library of the State Archive of Milan
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The first acquisitions of the library date to the Napoleonic era when a number of volumes were acquired together with the Diplomatic Archive, which at the time formed a section of the National Archive of San Fedele, forerunner to the modern-day State Archive of Milan.
Unfortunately, the bombings of August 1943 destroyed a large part of the collection that the library had amassed up that point. Reconstruction work resumed in 1944 and today the library houses around 40,000 monographs, 300 periodicals and 15,000 booklets.
The works owned by the library include, in particular, publications on the history of Milan and Lombardy, institutional history, archivistics, palaeography, diplomatics and auxiliary sciences of history (numismatics, heraldry, sphragistics, etc.), but also on the history of Lombard art and literature, the history of Italy and the history of the Church and the papacy.
The library has expanded, and continues to expand, its collection thanks to donations from private archives and institutions (De Castro, Galletti, Scarlata, Cutolo, Dell’Oro, State Attorney General), thanks to the mandatory deposit of every publication that uses the collections of the Archive and, to a lesser extent, through the targeted acquisition of new works.
The relocation of all works in the warehouses and the review of the consultation room, which will be organised according to the Dewey 21 Decimal Classification System, have been ongoing since December 2010.
The library catalogue can be consulted via the OPAC of the Lombardy Regional Hub, selecting the Library of the State Archive of Milan. Currently, around 30,000 monograph records and 180 periodical records with relative descriptions are available online. In any case, the consultation room still contains a paper catalogue of international records by author, although this has not been updated since 2010.
Useful links:
- National ICCU index: http://opac.sbn.it/opacsbn/opac/iccu/free.jsp
- Lombardy libraries hub: http://www.biblioteche.regione.lombardia.it/
- Italian biographical dictionary: http://www.treccani.it/biografie/
- Monumenta Germaniae Historica: http://www.dmgh.de/
- Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense digital newspaper archive: www.braidense.it/risorse/emeroteca.php
- The Internet Archive (digital library): http://archive.org/index.php
- Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica (Dictionary of historical-ecclesiastical learning) by Gaetano Moroni: http://www.cortedeirossi.it/libro/biblio/moroni.htm
- Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog (Metaopac): http://www.ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de/kvk_en.html
- Worldcat (Metaopac): http://www.worldcat.org/
- Gallica. Bibliothèque nationale de France (digital library): http://gallica.bnf.fr/
- Diplomatic code of medieval Lombardy (VIII-XII centuries): http://cdlm.unipv.it/
- Regesta imperii (English version): http://opac.regesta-imperii.de/lang_en/
Last updated: 11/07/2024
