The Angelica Library among its collections has an important collection of statutes relating to the city of Rome.

These are volumes and pamphlets that chronologically range from the 16th to the 19th century; the oldest ones belong to the library’s Antique Fund, while the largest part, came to the library in the years immediately following the unification of Italy and the subsequent transfer of the Angelica’s library holdings to the Italian state.

In addition, in those very years, particularly between 1883-1884, the Angelica acquired the part of the library that had belonged to the Princes Maximus Family, relating to works of Romanists.

At the same time purchases or donations, such as that of the Cav. Ettore Novelli, expanded the Statutes Fund, so much so that in the last years of the 19th century the Library Management felt the need to compile a catalog of such material. Actually, more than a catalog, it was an inventory, grouping 1351 items, with the works arranged by “keyword” under the fraternity or organization, indicating title, place, year of printing and by location. On that occasion, an attempt was also made, in some way, to create a Fund intended for such works by grouping them all, or almost all, under one location, which, for reasons that remain obscure, no longer exists today.

In recent times, through the perusal of inventories, and direct examination of the works, it has been possible to identify individual pieces: many of them relate to religious congregations that developed after the Council of Trent, with the specific intention of offering support to the Catholic confession threatened by the spread of Protestantism; others relate to arts and crafts and illustrate the daily life of Rome in past centuries.