Pius XII Library
The Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum Library was inaugurated in the year of the Institute’s foundation using the library collections that belonged to the International College of the Legionaries of Christ (C.I.L.C.). Over the years, there have been many occasions upon which the number of books available has been expanded; the library currently possesses more than 180.000 books including monographs, pamphlets and dissertations and receives about 1.000 periodical titles in current subscription or exchange.
Pius XII Library Services
The Library
In 1993, the catalogue of the Pio XII Library was considerably enriched by the acquisition of the personal archive of the well-known Mexican historian Ernesto de la Torre Villar, with some thirteen thousand books on the history of Mexico and Latin America.
Since 2000 with the foundation of the Faculty of Bioethics, the first in the world, the library has been equipped with a substantial collection of publications on the subject.
The library has been a member of the National Library Service since 2007 and has also joined ACNP, the Italian catalogue of periodicals
In addition, the library participates in cooperation initiatives aimed at information exchange and resource sharing, such as ESSPER Association for Research in Italian Periodicals in Economics, Social Sciences and History.
Eight hundred scientific journals are available to readers, as well as a collection of around 500 multimedia works (floppies and CD ROMs). These include a number of important bibliographic databases, useful in research in Philosophy and Theology, and the prestigious collection of the Clasicos Tavera edited by the Fundacion Historica Tavera, a Spanish institute that in the last two decades has undertaken the huge task of digitising the classics of Spanish and Spanish-American literature.
The catalogue can be viewed online and the reading room is equipped with four personal computers connected to the Polo degli Istituti Culturali di Roma and to the National Library Service.
Library Collections
As part of the library heritage received by the European University of Rome, the following already catalogued collections in the Pio XII Library are of particular relevance:
Trevisi Collection (History and Law), 7473 books.
Olmi Collection (Social and Information Sciences), 3069 monographs.
Catemario Collection (Humanities, Anthropology), 3024 monographs. In addition, there are other collections being catalogued.
Tucci Collection (Economic Sciences), 5725 monographs.
The A. De Gasperi Foundation Collection: (topics on International Politics, European Union, Community Law and the in-depth study of the figure of Alcide De Gasperi with biographies, research and unpublished studies promoted and published by the Foundation itself), 8000 books, of which there are approximately 6000 monographs and 2000 serial publications: periodicals, magazines, bulletins, notebooks.
Carotenuto Collection (Aldo Carotenuto’s personal library: Psychology), around 19751 catalogue records.
Useful information
Within the Pio XII Library there are mainly documents belonging to the subjects and disciplinary areas of the Faculties of the Pontifical Ateneo Regina Apostolorum.
The library is open Monday to Friday from 8:30am to 7pm and on Saturdays from 8:30 am to 1:30 pm. Ateneo’s students have free access to the reading room. External students are instead required to show valid ID.