The first location of the Library was at Collegio Leoniano, Rome, in the years 1909-1910.

From the very beginning of the PBI’s existence, the Society of Jesus was fully committed to provide funding for the Library in order to acquire everything that it needed.
Shelving units were installed first, followed by a core collection of books from all over Europe.
Many of these initial purchases were in German, as the rector, Fr.
Leopold Fonck, SJ, was German and was very devoted to German biblical scholarship.
The first purchases were made prior to October 25, 1909, through the Bretschneider bookshop in Rome, and included the Patrologiae Cursus Completus (Latina and Graeca) of Fr.
J.-P. Migne, the fifty-two volume set of the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, and, amongst hundreds of other works, commentaries on the Old and New Testaments by Karl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, respectively.

Many more exceptional volumes were added to the Library the following year.
On December 29, 1910, Fr.
Fonck received a signed document from the Cardinal Secretary of State, his Eminence Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, granting him permission to borrow a number of works from the Vatican Apostolic Library that Leo XIII had set aside for a future library dedicated to Biblical Studies.
These acquisitions included contemporary archaeological studies of the Ancient Near East (especially Palestine and Assyria), a collection of various exegetical and oriental periodicals, and duplicates of books in the Vatican Library.
These volumes, which remain the property of the Holy See, constitute the second important core collection of the Pontifical Biblical Institute Library.
The Library continued to expand between 1909 and 1934 with donations from numerous benefactors, including the du Coëtlosquet family, the brothers Augustin and Joseph Lémann, and Joseph Markwart.
The works received for book reviews for the journals Biblica and Orientalia further enlarged the collection.
The generosity of the benefactors and supplemental funding from the Society of Jesus enabled the Library’s collection to be doubled by 1934 in comparison to 1914.
In 1934, the rector of the PBI, Fr.
Augustin Bea, SJ, reported that the Library had accumulated one hundred thousand volumes.

New acquisitions over the years made it necessary to create a special depository for old and rarely consulted volumes in 1970.
The practice of transferring books to this new depository was sporadic until 1976, when Fr.
Saverio Corradino, SJ, began to send all works from the Library that were published before the 19th century to the depository.
In 1992, the Library began to digitise the catalogue.

The library has also been enriched by the generosity of the professors of the PBI who have donated both rare and recent publications in the field of biblical studies.
The entire collection now consists of more than 187,000 items.
The first location of the Library was at Collegio Leoniano, Rome, in the years 1909-1910.
From the very beginning of the PBI’s existence, the Society of Jesus was fully committed to provide funding for the Library in order to acquire everything that it needed. Shelving units were installed first, followed by a core collection of books from all over Europe. Many of these initial purchases were in German, as the rector, Fr. Leopold Fonck, SJ, was German and was very devoted to German biblical scholarship. The first purchases were made prior to October 25, 1909, through the Bretschneider bookshop in Rome, and included the Patrologiae Cursus Completus (Latina and Graeca) of Fr. J.-P. Migne, the fifty-two volume set of the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, and, amongst hundreds of other works, commentaries on the Old and New Testaments by Karl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, respectively.
Many more exceptional volumes were added to the Library the following year. On December 29, 1910, Fr. Fonck received a signed document from the Cardinal Secretary of State, his Eminence Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, granting him permission to borrow a number of works from the Vatican Apostolic Library that Leo XIII had set aside for a future library dedicated to Biblical Studies. These acquisitions included contemporary archaeological studies of the Ancient Near East (especially Palestine and Assyria), a collection of various exegetical and oriental periodicals, and duplicates of books in the Vatican Library. These volumes, which remain the property of the Holy See, constitute the second important core collection of the Pontifical Biblical Institute Library. The Library continued to expand between 1909 and 1934 with donations from numerous benefactors, including the du Coëtlosquet family, the brothers Augustin and Joseph Lémann, and Joseph Markwart. The works received for book reviews for the journals Biblica and Orientalia further enlarged the collection. The generosity of the benefactors and supplemental funding from the Society of Jesus enabled the Library’s collection to be doubled by 1934 in comparison to 1914. In 1934, the rector of the PBI, Fr. Augustin Bea, SJ, reported that the Library had accumulated one hundred thousand volumes.
New acquisitions over the years made it necessary to create a special depository for old and rarely consulted volumes in 1970. The practice of transferring books to this new depository was sporadic until 1976, when Fr. Saverio Corradino, SJ, began to send all works from the Library that were published before the 19th century to the depository. In 1992, the Library began to digitise the catalogue.
The library has also been enriched by the generosity of the professors of the PBI who have donated both rare and recent publications in the field of biblical studies. The entire collection now consists of more than 187,000 items.
Pontifical Biblical Institute Library