Fundação Biblioteca Nacional (FBN)

Overview

The Biblioteca Nacional do Brasil, officially the Fundação Biblioteca Nacional (FBN), is the depository of Brazil's bibliographic and documentary heritage, headquartered on Avenida Rio Branco in Rio de Janeiro. UNESCO has ranked it among the ten largest national libraries in the world and it is the largest in Latin America.

History

The library's origins trace to the Portuguese Royal Library, itself a successor to an earlier library destroyed in the fire following Lisbon's 1755 earthquake. When Napoleon's forces invaded Portugal in 1807-1808, the Portuguese royal family and court relocated to Rio de Janeiro, bringing roughly 60,000 items, including books, manuscripts, maps, prints, coins, and medals, initially housed in a room of the Hospital da Ordem Terceira do Carmo. A royal decree of October 29, 1810, ordering the collection's transfer to the former Carmelite catacombs, is officially considered the founding date of the Real Biblioteca, though it did not open to the public until 1814. After Brazilian independence, an 1825 treaty between Brazil and Portugal formally regulated Brazil's acquisition of the library. The institution moved to a building on Rua do Passeio in 1858 (now housing the Music School of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro). Its current building, designed by General Francisco Marcelino de Sousa Aguiar, had its cornerstone laid August 15, 1905, under President Rodrigues Alves, and was inaugurated October 29, 1910, under President Nilo Peçanha. In 1990, the library merged with the Instituto Nacional do Livro to form the Fundação Biblioteca Nacional as a public foundation linked to the Ministry of Culture.

Collections, Holdings, and Publications

The FBN's collection totals approximately nine to ten million items. Notable holdings include the Coleção Teresa Cristina Maria, a photographic collection donated in 1891 by Emperor Dom Pedro II; two copies of the Mainz Bible dating to 1462; and an 11th-12th century Evangeliário, the library's oldest manuscript. Brazil's Legal Deposit Law (Law 10.994 of December 14, 2004) requires that a copy of every publication in Brazil be deposited with the FBN. The Biblioteca Nacional Digital (BNDigital), created in 2006, integrates the library's digitized collections online.

Access and Usage

The FBN coordinates Brazil's National System of Public Libraries and national programs including PROLER (reading incentive), PLANOR (rare works restoration), and the national periodicals microfilming plan. The library is open to the public Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM, and Saturdays, 10:30 AM to 3:00 PM.