Bibliografia Storica Nazionale

Giunta Centrale per gli Studi Storici has among its institutional tasks to publish Bibliografia Storica Nazionale, which includes any work published in Italy, even in other languages, as well as any pieces that appeared in Italian journals (scientific or of a good standard). There was no critical intent or attempt at selection, however “school texts, fiction, and works with a historical-religious content that were purely for spiritual uplift” were excluded a priori. The cataloguing rules followed the guidelines set by the International Bibliography of Historical Sciences, with some slight modifications.

Bibliografia Storica Nazionale covers the chronological sections from Prehistory to Contemporary History. An introductory section regards Auxiliary Sciences, Bibliography and Historiography. The first volume of the BSN was printed on 28 October 1942 and covers publications for the year 1939, referring to 5306 entries regarding volumes and 297 for journals. Apart from lists regarding historiography publications for the year 2000, the BSN no longer publishes a print edition, but is freely available online (http://www.giunta-storica-nazionale.it/catalogo/). There are some 229.690 cataloguing records covering print volumes over 61 years, an average of 3765 a year. The online catalogue, between 2000 and November 2008, numbers 48.600 records, an average of over 6000 a year. The number of journals indexed tops 450 titles, while naturally not all have been active since 1939. Records are updated daily. We are planning a project, namely the digitalisation of the print volumes, with the aim of providing a single database that can be consulted homogeneously online. 

Giunta Storica Nazionale

Via Michelangelo Caetani 32, 00186 Roma

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