The National Central Library of Rome was inaugurated on 14 March 1876 in a wing of the monumental sixteenth-century Palazzo del Collegio Romano, the site of the ancient Bibliotheca Secreta or Major of the Jesuits, which constituted the original nucleus of the new institution, to which were added the manuscript and printed collections of 69 convent libraries devolved to the Kingdom of Italy after the suppression of the religious corporations of Rome in 1873.

One hundred years later, the Library was moved to its new premises, inaugurated on 31 January 1975, in the archaeological area of the Castro Pretorio.
The tasks of the National Central Library of Rome are: to collect and preserve Italian publishing production, to document the main foreign production and in particular the one dedicated to our country, to produce national bibliographical services, to disseminate and make available its holdings, to preserve, improve and promote the historical collections.