Historical information

The Library of the Pontifical Urbaniana University that we know is actually the result of two libraries: the Library of the Urban College, named University Library and the Pontifical Missionary Library which was transferred from the seat of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples located near the Spanish Steps. The two libraries merged in 1979.

From a chronological point of view, the University Library was founded 300 years before the Missionary Library, namely five years after the establishment of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide and the Urban College on August 1st 1627. By its very nature, the College aimed at fostering studies as a necessary part of the formation of future missionaries. To this end, having a Library was of paramount importance. 

According to historical documents the first collection of the Propaganda College Library was donated by the Gregorian College in 1643. As time passed by, the Library became so important that on December 5th 1667 the Pope Clement IX enacted a brief Conservazioni et manutenzioni librorum bibliothecae Collegi de Propaganda Fide which would punish anyone who stole books with excommunication.

As the book were donated to the Congregation de Propaganda Fide the early collection of the College Library was built up. Since then the Library has acquired various rare books and precious atlases over the years. Many volumes has come from the famous Polyglot Printery of the Sacred Congregation for Missionary Apostolate founded before the establishment of the Urban College. From the outset, the apostolate of printing books was actually considered as an important way of conveying the Faith.

During the last years of the French Revolution, the library and the Congregation de Propaganda Fide went through the hardest times of their history. In 1798, the French seized and gained control of the building of Propaganda Fide near the Spanish Steps. The new landlords thought that the publications in Oriental languages - once the pride of the Propaganda Printery - were no longer useful and decided to destroy them. One part of the Library and the Archives were transferred to France. Quite a few incunabula, rare books and manuscripts disappeared. Soon after the withdrawal of the French troops from Rome, the Congregation started buying back the goods put up for auction by the French, notably valuable codes and manuscripts, books, pieces of furniture, etc.

On the occasion of the Holy Year 1925, the Supreme Pontiff Pius XI promoted the idea of setting up a Missionary exhibition at the Vatican. The Holy Father wanted the exhibition to gather the highest number of publications concerning the missionary ministry and the Catholic missions, both past and present, as well as all the books and the works published on or somehow inspired by the missions. Afterwards, the books collected for the event (geographic tables, grammars and dictionaries of indigenous languages, catechisms, sacred histories, theological commentaries and books on the history of religion, topography, ethnography of mission countries) were donated to the Congregation de Propaganda Fide making up the collection of the Pontifical Missionary Library.

The new Library was put under the authority of the Sacred Congregation "de Propaganda Fide" which aimed at creating a closer co-operation between the Archives of the Congregation and the Missionary Library in order to foster and ease scientific research.

The first librarian was Father Robert Streit O.M.I. who had been in charge of the book section during the Missionary Exhibition.