- Established in 1902, the Historical Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are responsible for the preservation, reorganisation and inventory of the documentation produced by the Ministry’s Central Offices and by the Diplomatic and Consular Missions abroad. The Archives also preserve the originals of international treaties that are no longer in force and other archive collections of considerable importance, such as the archives of the former Ministry of Italian Africa, the former ISIAO and various private collections. Its holdings comprise approximately 30 linear kilometres of documentation, part of which can be consulted in the Reading Room, according to the procedures envisaged, with a request for authorisation to be submitted through the dedicated portal (here is a link to the portal: https://asd.esteri.it/default.aspx).
- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation publishes two official collections of diplomatic documents – a chronological and a thematic one – on the country’s foreign policy in order to ensure access to, and enhancement of, its historical-archival heritage and to provide scholars with broad and representative material to reconstruct the fundamental lines of Italy’s international policy.
- The Library manages the book and newspaper collections (both the historical and current ones) and serves both the internal and external public. Its book holdings currently consist of approximately 200,000 volumes, in addition to 1,500 Italian and foreign reviews and journals from different periods.
- The Ministry’s documentary and bibliographical heritage is also enhanced through the organisation of exhibitions, focusing on specific moments or aspects of the history of national foreign policy, but also through the Ministry’s social channels, with the production of podcasts, short videos and Facebook, Instagram and X posts.
Go to the Historical Diplomatic Documentation page: https://www.esteri.it/it/uapsds/archivio-storico-e-biblioteca/