The Music Library of the German Historical Institute in Rome is a specialist musicological library. Since its creation in 1960, it has supported the work of the Music History Department. The Music Library is also considered an important reference point for historical-musical research at an international level as well as a meeting and exchange forum for individuals working in the fields of research, culture, media and musical practice. Finally, it represents an ideal environment for the development of interdisciplinary studies.The music library resources cover an extended range of themes and are designed to satisfy the needs of modern research activity. Main fields are Italian and German music, musical theatre, sacred music and contemporary music. Italian regional music history is available in numerous rare titles. The rich collection of printed music includes a considerable number of complete works of musical monuments and rare editions.
The library's first core collection, in 1958, comprised around 700 volumes from the Bibliotheca Hertziana. Today, its collection consists of around 63.000 bibliographical works, books and scores, plus around 3.700 audio sources and around 2.700 reproductions of musical sources on microforms and photocopies.
On the open shelves in the reading room numerous encyclopaedias, bibliographies and catalogues are available, which also include hard to obtain materials, especially relating to Italian libraries and collections.