The Library of Geography, founded in 1877 together with the Department of Geography, was located inside the church of S. Ivo, at Sapienza, under the direction of Giuseppe Dalla Vedova, who started the first collection of volumes and magazines.
It was further enriched under the direction of Roberto Almagià, which began in 1915. It was thanks to his notable contribution that the Library acquired prestige and value - he published countless essays in prestigious national and international periodicals, on the most disparate themes of world geography, which he finally donated to the Library. Furthermore, it was his idea to arrange the Institute's publications in three series:
- Series A (Antropogeography)
- Series B (Cartography)
- Series C (Bibliography)
In 1935-1936, a new accurate consultation file was written entirely by hand. In 1920 the Library was moved to the third floor of Palazzo Carpegna, whereas in 1935 it was moved to its new, current location on the first floor of the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy of the University of Rome "La Sapienza”, together with the Institute (formerly known as the "Cabinet of Geography"). The vast spaces of the Institute were then enriched with maps, atlases, books and models.
In 1938 Roberto Almagià was deprived of any official post following the racial laws and was succeeded by Riccardo Riccardi, who continued the work of the previous Director by publishing two volumes and an important collection of national atlases in difficult years. The institute's publications were interrupted in 1955 and then resumed in 1961. The Library was afterwards continuously increased through purchases, exchanges, gifts. In 1968 the direction of the Library and that of the Institute were taken over by Osvaldo Baldacci, who enriched them with numerous volumes and topographical maps. In fact, he was responsible for the collection of all the topographical maps of Italy drawn up by the IGM.
In 1989 Emanuele Paratore succeeded in the direction and in 1991 Cosimo Palagiano, promoter of changes and expansions of the Library. The book heritage has been continuously and qualitatively increased, with some sectors in particular (e.g. Historical geography). The collections of many periodicals are complete right from the foundation phase of the periodicals themselves.
In 1995 the Library joined the National Library Service (in Italian, SBN). From this moment on, the Library employs automated procedures and is connected to the collective catalog of publications from libraries belonging to SBN. In a few years, the long and difficult recovery of about 95% of the previous paper bibliographic records was carried out by transferring the data to the on-line catalog. This enables users to search online, regardless of space and time limits, thus making this Library a reality that is no longer local but national and modern.
Between the years 2001-2018 there have been subsequent changes in the administration of the Library: first, the Department of Human Geography was established, then it merged into the Department of Glottoanthropological Studies. Afterwards, it became part of the Department of Documentary, Linguistic-Philological and Geographic Sciences under the direction of Paolo Di Giovine.
The Department finally became part of the newly founded Department of Letters and Modern Culture, together with that of Greek-Latin, Italian and Musical Scenic Studies. The Library of Geography is today one of the four sections of the Library of the Department of Modern Literature and Culture.