Our History

The very first collection of books of the present library was created in 1964, when the School of Political Sciences was founded by the politologist Nicola Matteucci among others.

At first, this corpus of books was kept in the Antonio Cicu Law Library. It only became an actual library in the mid-1970s, when it was transferred to Palazzo Hercolani; the building that hosts the current library as well as what was known at the time as the Istituto Storico Politico (Historical-Political Institute), of which the library is an integral part. Over the years, the library has become a reference point for the entire School of Political Sciences.

In the early 1980s, after the reform on university autonomy, the institute changed its name to the Dipartimento di Politica, Istituzioni e Storia (Department of Politics, Institutions and History). The name was also associated to the library, which belonged to the aforementioned department until 2012.

In October 2012, after the implementation of the Gelmini reform on education, the Department of Politics, Institutions and History and the Department of Political Sciences merged into a single entity, namely the Department of Political and Social Sciences.

The first integrated services between the two libraries of the previous departments were set up during that same period. This process was finalized in July 2017, when the collections of the two libraries were merged; then, in November 2018, the new library dedicated to Nicola Matteucci was officially opened.

The library collection includes all the subject matters included in the previous libraries. There is a large quantity of books related to history, political science, political theory and constitutional law. In addition to these, a large collection of books on sociology, political organization and political systems was transferred from the Department of Political Science’s library.

On 13 December 2021, the library became a Sector of the Libraries and Study Services Division (ABIS).

To date, the library collection is composed of approximately 80,000 monographs and 774 newspapers, of which 177 are in active circulation.