Printed Collection

Books and periodicals in every shape and form

The Cineteca’s library holdings include around 25,000 books and 1100 periodicals as well as archive collections pertaining to film. The library is committed to documenting the history, theory and techniques of Italian and international cinema and encouraging the study of the moving image as a cultural phenomenon and form of artistic expression.
The library’s collection consists of books on film theory, technique and cinema industries around the world, screenplays, scripts, works about films, actors and directors, texts on the legislation and economics of film, reference works, encyclopedias and press reviews.
The library also has sections on photography and graphic arts (books on history, theory, techniques, monographs and essays on artists, exhibition catalogs). The Crime Library features over 3,000 novels and stories (donated by Wilma Lanzarini), and the shelves of the Film and Comics section are lined with critical texts, journals and comics connected to film. The Travel Library of the Fondazione Marilena Ferrari may also be consulted.
The periodicals are an especially significant part of the library’s collection. Film periodicals run from the silent age to the most recent Italian and international journals. The library subscribes to 159 periodicals and has a collection of about 850 out-of-print periodicals. They may be consulted on request. Graphic arts and photo magazines are also part of the collection as well as rare magazines on microfilm.
The Cineteca’s library acquires books from publishing companies that specialize in film (university publications, festival monographs and book series edited by European film archives). Priority is given to books in English and French, but there are also Spanish, German, Czech and Portuguese publications. The library also subscribes to the most important French, English, Spanish, German, Russian, American and Finnish periodicals.