The Historical Bibliographic Collection

The vast collection of books of the ISPRA Library (over 60,000 volumes) on the theme of Earth Sciences comes from the possessions of the Geological Survey of Italy and originated in the years immediately following the unification of Italy .
The R.D. n. 4113 of December 15, 1867 establishing the Royal Geological Committee, included, among other things, the creation of a library - with custom-made furniture and bookcases - the need for which the Committee was well aware of, having started immediately "to form a special valuable library" enriched by "a collection of papers that continuously grows".
Approximately 7,000 of the nineteenth century volumes - 250 of which are dated until 1830 and catalogued as Ancient in the National Library Service Catalogue -  testify of the beginnings of geology and paleontology as branches of Natural History that painfully asserted themselves as scientific disciplines as they are intended today.
The collection include valuable books, atlases with very large tables and rare editions with illustrations, often handmade, and dedications of the Authors.
Many volumes are already completely digitized and, for other volumes, so are the most representative plates and covers: this material is available on-line at the catalogue: opac.isprambiente.it.

The vast collection of books of the ISPRA Library (over 60,000 volumes) on the theme of Earth Sciences comes from the possessions of the Geological Survey of Italy and originated in the years immediately following the unification of Italy .
The R.D. n. 4113 of December 15, 1867 establishing the Royal Geological Committee, included, among other things, the creation of a library - with custom-made furniture and bookcases - the need for which the Committee was well aware of, having started immediately "to form a special valuable library" enriched by "a collection of papers that continuously grows".
Approximately 7,000 of the nineteenth century volumes - 250 of which are dated until 1830 and catalogued as Ancient in the National Library Service Catalogue -  testify of the beginnings of geology and paleontology as branches of Natural History that painfully asserted themselves as scientific disciplines as they are intended today.
The collection include valuable books, atlases with very large tables and rare editions with illustrations, often handmade, and dedications of the Authors.

Many volumes are already completely digitized and, for other volumes, so are the most representative plates and covers: this material is available on-line at the catalogue: opac.isprambiente.it.