Later the Maritime Museum became the owner of a vast book collection, may date back to the 17th century. At that time Piran's Accademia degli Intricati is believed to have founded a small public library. The importance of the library is evident from the doge's order to the Accademia to rename itself as "Accademia Agraria e Biblioteca" in 1770.
In 1818 the management of the library was taken over by the Director of the schools of Piran. The library did not prosper under this management, until in the middle of the 19th century when the mayor released a decree effectively stating a plan for the development of the library. The local administration was to regularly finance the library for the purchase of new books, and a full-time librarian was to be employed.
Prior to the founding of the museum, the library and the archives had been joined, and moved on several occasions. In 1955 the independent Civic Archives were founded, while the library stayed in the museum.
The museum library is divided into three collections. Books from the Biblioteca Civica and new books are treated separately.
The Biblioteca Civica collection contains a variety of items, some of them precious. Many books date back to the 16th century, the oldest one being from 1501. Among the most interesting books are the comprehensive late 18th century Encyclopaedia by Didero, and the only fully preserved Atlas from 1526 by Pietro Coppo from Izola.
The second collection is called "Istrica". These books originate from Biblioteca Civica. They are connected to Istria either by topic, author or place of publishing. This part of the library is very useful to those interested in the history of Istria.
The third collection is the research library. The books found here cover topics such as seamanship and maritime history, salt-making, fishing and underwater archaeology. Other topics range from local history, museology, ethnology, art, history and archaeology, useful for employees of the museum.
About 7,500 items of the museum library have been classified according to the modern criteria, and about 5,000 - mostly belonging to the Biblioteca Civica collection - are still waiting for classification.
The library keeps an updated author and title catalogue as well as a UDC one. Furthermore, there are two separate catalogues for Biblioteca Civica and for Istrica.
Books are on open stack. Due to the lack of space there is no permanent reading room. An interested reader, however, is always welcome in the museum. All the books from the research library can be borrowed. The antique books from the other two collections can be borrowed with special permission from the director of the museum.
The library is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 1pm. Your enquiries on the E-mail will be met by the librarian Peter Cerce.