The Museo Biblioteca dell'Attore, which is appreciated at a national level, is a foundation whose purpose is to spread the culture of entertainment and the historical and critical study of theatre, cinema, stage art and the conditions of the Italian actor from the beginning of the 18th century until today.
The museum exhibits the studies of Gilberto Govi, Tommaso Salvini, Sabatino Lopez and Alessandro Fersen, the costume of Mr. Bonaventura by Sergio Tofano and numerous other museum materials.The library is specialized in dramatic theatre, cinema and other aspects of entertainment and currently has over 45,000 volumes and 1,300 Italian and foreign magazines. The archive holds about 72,000 autographs; 69,000 photographs; 1,300 scripts; 4,000 including sketches, caricatures, original drawings, posters, playbills; 62,000 press cuttings; 10,000 theatrical programs.
The museum also has a collection of theatrical costumes including those of Adelaide Ristori and those that belonged to actors such as Ermete Zacconi, Lamberto Picasso and Lilla Brignone.
The costumes are viewable only by appointment because it is important to preserve their conservation. Among the museum's collections there is also a 19th century puppet theatre, the Teatrino Rissone, which belonged to the Rissone family and was donated by Checco Rissone and Emi De Sica, daughter of Giuditta Rissone and Vittorio De Sica. Today, the book and archival collections, named after the personalities of theatre and culture to which they belonged, are over seventy. The heritage is constantly expanding: recently it has been enriched by the theatrical libraries of Guido Ceronetti and Ermete Zacconi and the archive of Armando Bandini. The institutional activity of the library, the archive and the museum, in addition to the cataloguing, inventory, conservation and enhancement of its own funds, is open to the public for a total of 22 hours per week.