Manuscripts
The Library holds approximately 40,000 manuscripts, most of these being written correspondence from many of the major figures of the Italian Risorgimento: Mazzini (approximately 9000 items), Foscolo (autographs, letters, manuscripts, documents, first printed editions of the Foscolian works, prints and photographs of the poet), Guerrazzi (4000 editions of his works, 215 signed and unpublished signed letters and various notes including some autographs of Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi), Garibaldi, Crispi, Cavour, Pisacane. There are also items from political figures of the liberal and fascist periods and the First World War.
Printed items
About 600,000 volumes and brochures, with the oldest coming from the "Risorgimento Section" of the National Library in Rome.
Edicts and announcements
70,000 printed documents including announcement, proclamations, edicts and notifications from the pre-Unification Italian states. These stretch from the end of the 18th century to the Risorgimento period. All material is arranged by state and ordered chronologically.
Parliamentary Acts
A collection of constitutions, laws and codes of the pre-Unification Italian states, official publications from the Regno di Sardegna and the Regno d’Italia (1848-1946), Acts of the Consulta and Assemblea Costituente and of the Italian Republic Parliament (1945-1987).
Iconographic documents
2,000 prints mainly representing Risorgimento themes, some of which are satirical. The prints are both individual or gathered in albums, series and bound volumes. Most of the iconographic material has been digitized and can be seen on the Digiteca system.
Musical scores
Collections of 470 scores of patriotic popular music from the Risorgimento period and the First World War.
Periodicals
About 12,000 newspapers, 3,500 of which are currently available in paper or electronic format on the Jstor, Project muse and the Historical abstracts databases. Around 2,000 of these relate to the XVIII-XIX centuries; around 3,000 relate to Italian and foreign newspapers and periodicals of the First World War.
Posters
About 330 illustrated posters of the First World War, mostly related to the signing of the six national war loans launched in the years 1915-1919, in addition to some of the Red Cross and the assistance committees. About 9,000 posters from the years 1945-2012 document the activity of parties, unions and other political, recreational, social, and religious associations.
Postcards
Around 200 illustrated postcards relating to historical themes, such as the postcards of the album dedicated to Giuseppe Garibaldi in occasion of the centenary of his birth, the series of "Danza macabra" by A. Martini, or the 150 postcards related to elements of the First World War.
Photos
About 8,000 photos. The most significant collections are: 41 salt print of Stefano Lecchi, 60 watercolored album in from the end of the 19th century, around 1,700 photographs from the First World War plus another 300 photos in albums, 700 photos from Italian Somalia, 150 from the Italian colony in Eritrea.
Maps
200 geographical and topographical maps of historical interest, mostly relating to the battles for the wars of independence and the First World War 1915-1918.
Material documents
240 items of art objects and historical documents relating to significant persons from the XVIII, XIX and XX centuries. These were a gift from the historian Francesco Margiotta Broglio.
Microfilm
About 4,000 microfilm reels in 35 or 16 mm, on which rare and valuable material is presented: some vintages of eighteenth and nineteenth century periodicals, collections of edicts and notices, newspapers and weekly magazines.
