The Library was born from smaller donated collections and has matured into the present collection of over 50,000 volumes of books published between the 16th and 21st centuries. About 500 new titles are added to the collection every year.
The collection gives particular focus to History of Art, English and Italian literature and language, History, Travel, The Grand Tour, and Music.
The Library has a valuable collection of rare books including many signed first editions. These are reference copies and may be consulted in the Library only.
The Grand Tour Digital Resource
An incomparable on-line resource of manuscript, visual and printed works developed by Adam Matthew Digital. Sources come from the Beinecke Library, the Paul Mellon Centre, the Chaney Library, the British Library, our own archive and others. The resource includes manuscripts of prominent figures, rare and essential printed sources, visual material including paintings and sketches of Italy and the Continent, and a searchable version of Ingamell's Dictionary of British and Irish Travellers in Italy, 1701-1800. www.grandtour.amdigital.co.uk The database is only accessible to British Institute Library members in the Library.
How can I help? Donate a book.
As you may be aware the British Institute receives no funding from the UK Government. We are very fortunate to be able to count on the generous support of donors both institutional and individual for the maintenance of the Library and Archives.
We are frequently asked the question “How can I help support the British Institute Library?” One practical way you can help is to buy a book for the British Institute. Here we have compiled a list of books which we would love to add to the collection.
If you would like to buy one of these books for the Library please get in touch with the Library staff and tell us which book you would like to buy. All donors’ names will be included in our collection catalogue. Prices listed here are indicative and may change.
Most recent desiderata:
Ill Fares the Land: a Treatise on Our Present Discontents; Tony Judt (Allen Lane, 2010) £20
Prefaces to Shakespeare; Tony Tanner (Harvard, 2010) £29.95
A History of the World in 100 Objects; Neil MacGregor(Allen Lane, 2010) £30
A Face to the World: On Self-Portraits; Laura Cumming (HarperCollins, 2010) £18.99
Dreamers of a New Day: Women Who Invented the 20th Century; Sheila Rowbotham (Verso, 2010) £17.99
A Book of Secrets: Illegitimate Daughters - Absent Fathers; Michael Holroyd (Chatto & Windus, 2010) £16.99
The Empty Family; Colm Toibin(Penguin, 2010) £17.99
Exiles, Emigres and Intermediaries: Anglo-Italian Cultural Transactions; Barbara Schaff ed. (Rodopi, 2010) £72
Classical Sculpture and the Culture of Collecting in Britain since 1760; Viccy Coltman(OUP, 2010) £50
Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History; Robert M. Edsel (2009) £8
Additional desiderata:
Henry Moore; Chris Stephens; £18.71
Halliwell's Film Guide 2008; John Walker; £17.49
Windows to the Sun: D.H. Lawrence's Thought-adventures; Earl G. Ingersoll; £41.33
Reception of D.H. Lawrence in Europe (Reception of British and Irish Authors in Europe); Dieter Mehl; £118.75
Re-Reading Leonardo: The "Treatise on Painting" Across Europe, 1550-1900; Claire Farago; £61.75
Pompeo Batoni: Prince of Painters in Eighteenth-Century Rome; EP Bowron; £38.00
Vital Crises in Italian Cinema: Iconography, Stylistics, Politics; P.Adams Sitney; £29.98
Italian Frescoes: The High Renaissance and Mannerism (Italian Frescoes); Julian Kliemann; £80.75
Italian Frescoes: The Baroque Era 1600-1800: 5; Steffi Roettgen; £80.75
Imagined Interiors: Representing the Domestic Interior Since the Renaissance; Jeremy Aynsley; £31.50
Venice, Cita Excelentissima: Selections from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo; Patricia H. Labalme; £32.19
Aristocrats: Power, Grace and Decadence: Britain’s Great Ruling Classes Since 1066; James Lawrence; £25.00
The English Opium-Eater; Robert Morrison; £25.00
The Morbid Age: Britain Between the Wars; Richard Overy; £25.00
The Houses We Live In: An Identification Guide to the History and Style of American Domestic Architecture; Jeffrey Howe (ed.), £43.61
The Europa World of Learning 2010, 60th ed.; Routledge £550.00
L’inchiostro del Mago, Franco Marucci, €25.00 (NB euros)
Hauntings and Other Fantastic Tales; Catherine Maxwell, Patricia Pulham (eds.); £15.50
Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage 2008; Debrett’s Peerage; £252.32
Debrett's New Guide to Etiquette and Modern Manners: The Indispensable Handbook; John Morgan; £26.19
Debrett's correct form; Debrett’s Peerage; £9.18
Recent editions of:
Italian/English dictionaries eg Garzanti, Zanichelli
Italian dictionaries eg Zingarelli
Many thanks indeed to those who have donated the following:
Absolutism in Renaissance Milan: Plenitude of Power under the Visconti and the Sforza 1329-1535; Jane Black
Holy Warriors: A Modern History of the Crusades; Jonathan Phillips
Italian Frescoes: The Age of Giotto 1280-1400; Joachim Poeschke
The Triumph of Marriage: Painted Cassoni of the Renaissance; Cristelle Baskins
The Oxford Companion to the Book (2 vols); Michael F. Suarez
Vernon Lee, Decadence, Ethics, Aesthetics; Catherine Maxwell, Patricia Pulham (eds.)
Guides to the collections
We are continually adding to these guides and would welcome any suggestions you might have for more guides.