The library was originally comprised of a core collection of books belonging to Benvenuto and Alessandro Terracini. It was then enlarged with donations from the Jewish communities of Alessandria, Carmagnola, Cuneo, Ivrea, Mondovì, Saluzzo, Turin and Vercelli. Today, it includes a number of subsequent private contributions, and counts a total of approximately 4300 units, including:
- 140 Manuscripts
- Approximately 2200 books in Hebrew including 2 incunabula (Moshe ben Maimon’s Mishna. Naples, Soncino 1492) and around 212 fifteeners printed in Venice, Mantova, Sabbioneta, Bologna, Riva di Trento, Basilea, Lion, Paris, Pesaro, Cremona, Ferrara, Cracovia, Costantinopoli, Rimini and Salonicco
- Approximately 830 books in languages other than Hebrew
- 148 periodical mastheads (incomplete publication years or miscellaneous issues) published in Alessandria of Egypt, Amsterdam, Belgrade, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Casale Monferrato, Corfù, Florence, Genoa, Livorno, London, Milan, Modena, New York, Paris, Parma, Prague, Turin, Trieste, Tucuman and Vercelli, in a period ranging from 1842 to 2009
A detailed catalog of all periodicals is readily available. Non-Hebrew books have been inventoried through an SBN on-line classification process. A cataloging system is currently being developed for the texts in Hebrew.