The Royal Parmense Library, National Library, Imperial Bibliothèque, Bibliothèque de la Ville de Parme, and the Ducal Library are today united into the Biblioteca Palatina , which is located on the second floor of the Pilotta Palace. Founded on the request of Ferdinando di Borbone, and by the Reform Minister Guillaume-Lèon Du Tillot, its original project was given over to the librarian Paolo Maria Paciaudi, a religious Theatine of Piemontese origin.It gained publishing rights from 1768 and, the first in Italy, adopted the author card catalogue system. It was installed with wooden shelving designed by E. A. Petitot, provided with valuable bibliographic material, subdivided by subject into six main categories (theology, nomenclature, philosophy, history, philology, liberal arts), was officially inaugurated in May of 1769. Besides Paciaudi, the librarians who had a great influence on the library were the following: Ireneo Affò (1785-1797); Angelo Pezzana (1804-1862); Federico Odorici (1862-1876); Edoardo Alvisi (1893-1915); Pietro Zorzanello (1927-1935); Giovanni Masi (1935-1952) and Angelo Ciavarella (1957-1973). Today Leonardo Farinelli directs it.
If the library’s layout is due to the efforts of Paciaudi, the purchase of collections of exceptional cultural, bibliographic, and artistic value is above all the work of Angelo Pezzana who was the director when the "Maria Luigia" Reading Room was built. Under the Italian Unity it became part of the State, and Museum Bodonian and the Musical Section (this latter one in the “A. Boito Conservatory Hall) were annexed on.