The Biblioteca Antica of the Seminary contains a vast collection of ancient books dating from 1500 to 1830. Some come from the Alberoni College, some from local families living in Bedonia, and others were inherited from a great number of priests: the collection amounts to about 7000 volumes representative of how civilisation was in the past in the local area and most of the topics dealt with are theological, historical, literary or concerning law; there are several important editions, besides 225 splendid cinquecentines. A further 6000 volumes date from 1830 to 1920. So, in all, there are 13.000 books in custody in this library.
Representative of the refined culture of our Priests, Clergy and Professional People the vast collection continues to increase thanks to new literary donations.
The oldest works the library has, the Cinquecentines, deal with biblical, legal, literary and scientific topics. The illustrated works of the naturalist Mattioli and a Universal Cosmography are perhaps two of the more important works the library has in custody.
Theology, Asceticism, Manuals on Devotion, Treaties on Morality and Patristic Works in addition to Literature, Philosophy (of both Italian and foreign authors), Jurisprudence, Science, the Arts and a selection of local books, complete the legacy of the Old Library.
It even has the works of all the authors of the Enlightenment which is uncommon for a Seminary.