The Library preserves a significant historical collection closely connected with the history of the Institution. Alongside the historical collections, it currently houses sections dedicated to music bibliographic research tools, critical editions and musical sources, and musicological literature.

The current holdings consist of:

Manuscripts: a collection of over 2,000 musical manuscripts from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, including copies of operatic and instrumental repertoire. The 20th-century manuscript collection is also substantial and includes autograph scores.

Among the most notable ancient documents are four tablatures: for chitarrino or four-string guitar (1608), Spanish guitar (early 17th century), lute (late 16th century), and 11-string theorbo (early 17th century). Additionally, there are 18th- and 19th-century copies of works such as Giulio Sabino by G. Sarti (dated 1780), La serva padrona and Livietta e Tracollo by G. B. Pergolesi, three operas by G. Paisiello (Il barbiere di Siviglia, La serva padrona, Il fanatico in berlina), Prima la musica e poi le parole by A. Salieri, and early 19th-century Rossini scores. Other notable items include the score of Massimo Puppieno by C. Pallavicino, a late 17th-century Venetian manuscript, the autograph score of Il Simoncino (1809) by F. Morlacchi, the only autograph manuscript of Il Ritorno di Odisseo by R. Zandonai, composed in Pesaro in 1901, and other instrumental manuscripts (including a Violin Concerto by S. Ripini and a Concerto for Orchestra by F. Marchetti).

Printed Music: over 28,000 items including scores, sheet music, treatises, and method books, published from the 16th century to the present. Among the oldest examples are L. Marenzio, Il primo libro di madrigali a sei voci, Venice 1581; B. Marcello, Canzoni madrigalesche et arie per camera a due, tre e quattro voci, Bologna 1717; treatises by Aristoxenus (Harmonicorum elementorum Libri III, 1562), E. Bottrigari, F. Gaffurio (Practica musicae, 1512), F. Gasparini, G. Zarlino, and many others.

Musicological Literature: biographies, essays, treatises, manuals, bibliographic tools, and repertoires for source research. The collection reflects recent and up-to-date musicological scholarship. Regarding treatises, at least 20,000 items date from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Periodicals: 80 historical and discontinued periodicals, and 25 current periodicals.

Media and Record Collection: over 2,300 CDs and DVDs of musical works and 1,500 records on shellac and vinyl.

Several specialized collections define the Library’s identity:

Bodojra Collection
The founding collection of the Library. This private collection, donated by the Turin musician Paolo Bodojra (1808–1885) and revised in the summer of 2018, consists of 18th- and 19th-century treatises and organological works, methods on theory, harmony, composition, singing, literature for harpsichord, organ, and piano, and manuscripts and printed materials documenting operatic repertoire of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Amilcare Zanella Collection
238 autograph manuscripts representing much of the composer’s output (1875–1949), including works composed during his tenure as director of the Rossini Lyceum (1905–1940). This collection is virtually unique in the national library landscape and fully described in OPAC-SBN.

Rari Collection
Musical manuscripts and prints from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The Rossini section is particularly important, preserving Rossini’s operatic scores in first editions or in fine Italian and French editions contemporary with the composer.

Fara Collection
Private library donated by Professor Mario Giulio Fara Dessì, Chair of History and Aesthetics of Music and Librarian from 1923 to 1949. The collection mainly reflects his ethnomusicological interests, making him a pioneer of the discipline in Italy, and is enriched with 19th- and 20th-century scores and historical-musicological essays. The collection is fully searchable in OPAC-SBN.

Colombani-Verzeri Collection
Notable prints of string quartet and quintet repertoire by composers from the Beethovenian period.

Collection of Opera Scores
Opera scores in historical and modern editions, documenting the history of 19th-century Italian and French opera.

Collection of Opera Libretti
Dramatic music librettos from the 18th and 19th centuries, including a core of several hundred items with performance and performer annotations (some handwritten), and various librettos from performances in theatres of the Marche region.

Correspondence Collection
Letters from prominent musical figures such as Crescentini, Grilli, Catalani, Frontali, Joachim, Liszt, Mariani, Mascagni, Mercadante, Pacini, Tebaldini, Puccini, and Verdi.

Iconographic Material Collection
Portraits, photographs, diplomas, posters, and historical brochures.

Additionally, the extensive Opera Omnia section hosts ambitious series dedicated to Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Froberger, Händel, Liszt, Monteverdi, Mozart, Palestrina, Rossini, Schoenberg, Schubert, Schumann, and Vivaldi.

Finally, the 20th-century scores section includes around 350 graphic scores published in the 1950s–1970s.

The Library’s holdings have been enriched over time through numerous donations. Among the most significant is the Campolieti donation (1970s–1980s), consisting of about 5,000 volumes of scores and manuscripts collected by Luigi Campolieti during his professional career in Parisian theaters.

Recent donations include:

• Rosi-Lugli Donation: focused on printed music for guitar, both original and in transcription, with high-quality early 20th-century editions.

• Adriano Sabbatini Donation, former professor at the Rossini Conservatoire: dedicated to bassoon repertoire;

• Gilberto Calcagnini Donation: dedicated to musicology.

• Andrea Maria Mazza Donation: historical 19th-century opera scores and fine editions from the first half of the 20th century.

• Eugenio Giordani Donation, former professor at the Rossini Conservatoire: containing extensive materials related to music and electronic composition;

• Aurelio Samorì Donation, former professor at the Rossini Conservatoire: manuscripts and printed materials by the composer.

Many modern volumes useful for various areas of music education were also donated by Pierino Rossi, Professor of Harmony and Analysis.

Reference works (encyclopaedias, dictionaries, bibliographies, repertories, and complete works) are housed in the reading and reference rooms. All other materials, arranged in the rooms according to a systematic classification, can be accessed through the consultation of catalogues.

Scholars wishing to consult rare and valuable materials may submit a request to the Library Director or the Librarian Professor by email (biblioteca@conservatoriorossini.it) or by telephone.

Computer workstations are available to users in the reading rooms for bibliographic research in electronic catalogues and on the Internet.

On-Site Consultation and Reading

• RILM – Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale: the international bibliography of writings on music, accessible at https://research.ebsco.com/

• Grove Music Online: one of the most important international encyclopedias on music and musicians in English, providing cross-referenced bibliographic research resources, accessible at https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/.

Additionally, the Library allows faculty, academic students, and doctoral candidates to access the NKODA digital library through a personal account, which includes editions from major music publishers such as Ricordi, Bärenreiter, Durand, Breitkopf & Härtel, G. Schirmer, Chester Music, Boosey & Hawkes, and others. For registration and access instructions, please contact biblioteca@conservatoriorossini.it.

Loan Policy

Loans for off-site use are permitted only for volumes not subject to restrictions. The standard loan period is 15 days, renewable for an additional 15 days via email (biblioteca@conservatoriorossini.it).

The following are excluded from loan: manuscripts, books printed before 1940, reference works, collections, periodicals, items of particular importance or value, newly acquired materials not yet fully catalogued, and, during certain periods of the academic year, materials frequently used for teaching purposes.

Reproductions

The Library allows reproduction of documents for internal teaching purposes and for external users for study or editorial purposes, upon authorization from the Library Director or Librarian and Professor, and in compliance with applicable law.

For particularly valuable works, users may request to make photographic reproductions using their own equipment, subject to authorization from the Library Director or Librarian and Professor, and always under the supervision of Library staff. The Library also offers paid reproduction services upon request via email.

Periodicals

Approximately 200 periodicals, both discontinued and current, are available for on-site consultation. The Library currently subscribes to the following titles in print and/or digital format, in addition to access via JSTOR:

• 19th-Century Music

• Acta musicologica

• Analecta musicologica

• Bollettino del Centro rossiniano di studi

• Early Music History

• Ethnomusicology

• Fontes Artis Musicae

• Il Fronimo

• The Galpin Society Journal

• Imago Musicae

• Journal of the American Musicological Society

• Music & Letters

• Musica Domani

• The Musical Quarterly

• Musica Realtà

• Musurgia

• Notes

• Perspectives of New Music

• Quaderni dell’Istituto Liszt

• Rivista di Analisi e Teoria Musicale

• Rivista Internazionale di Musica Sacra

• Rivista Italiana di Musicologia

• Il Saggiatore musicale

• Studi Musicali

• The World of Music (New Series)