Historical Section

The Historical Section, part of the Economics and Law Library, was established in 1997 to support research and teaching in the historical and legal field. Its collection, mainly composed of antique, rare or valuable volumes and special collections, has been expanded over the years through donations and purchases.

The collection currently includes over 13,000 volumes. Some of the main sections are listed below:

• Ancient Collection: over 1,100 books of historical and legal interest printed between the 16th and 19th centuries (up to 1830);
• Avanzini Collection: legal texts that belonged to the Brescian lawyer, law professor and politician Massimo Avanzini (1886-1952), donated in 1997 by his son, lawyer Arnaldo Avanzini (1916-2013);
• Anzoletti-Giongo Collection: ancient and modern volumes of literary and historical content, collected by Augusto Anzoletti (1872-1970) and his nephew Vittorio Giongo (1906-1985), both doctors, donated by their Brescian heirs in 2010;
• Zanardelli Collection: volumes, pamphlets and manuscripts on various subjects that belonged to the Brescian jurist and politician Giuseppe Zanardelli (1826-1903), purchased by the library through the antiquarian book market in 2009.

The collection also includes numerous modern volumes useful for research, study and teaching in the historical-legal field: encyclopaedias, dictionaries, academic journals, editions of classics and other texts.

The holdings of the Historical Section are listed in the University Library System’s catalogue, which provides their location. All materials are excluded from loan and are available for on-site consultation only: to access them, users must visit the section in person and fill out the appropriate paper request forms, with the assistance of the staff.

The Historical Section also provides a specialist reference service.

Documents reproduction is allowed in accordance with copyright law; however, photocopying of antique, rare, fragile or otherwise delicate material is not permitted.

More than 200 volumes of significant interest have been digitized and are freely available online as part of the BDL-Biblioteca Digitale Lombarda project (see the link below).

Due to the unique and valuable nature of the collection, specific rules for access to the Historical Section have been defined by the Scientific Council of the University Library System.