Dominican House of Studies: Dominican Theological Library External

Address: 487 Michigan Ave. NE, Washington, DC 20017

Telephone number: 202.655.4654

Contact information External

Online catalog External

Hours of service External

Open to the public: No; open to students, faculty and staff of the Dominican House of Studies as well as current students of the Washington Theological Consortium External. Members of the public may request special guest privileges by contacting the library at [email protected] (see Visiting Privileges for more information).

Interlibrary loan: No

Reference policy: Reference requests are accepted by: telephone and email.

Background note:
The Dominican Theological Library serves as the institutional library for the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies. The library was founded in 1834 as the faculty library of the House of Studies in Somerset, Ohio, and moved to Washington, D.C. with the establishment of the current House of Studies in 1905.

Books and monographs
The collection holds over 65,000 volumes, emphasizing the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, Thomistic philosophy and theology, Dominican authors, and the history of the Dominican Order

The library's special collections include:

• 32 incunabula;
• 433 items on canon law, including materials related to the 1983 revision of the Code of Canon Law, from Cardinal Rosalio José Castillo Lara's personal library;
• Over 3,800 items in its general Rare and Special Collections, with topics mirroring those of the library as a whole (theology, particularly Thomistic theology; philosophy; Scripture and scriptural commentary; Church history; liturgical texts; and devotional works)

Access to these materials are by appointment only; please contact [email protected] for information.

Periodicals and newspapers
There are 207 current subscriptions as of January 2022, with back issues of an additional 249 titles available in the library and from off-site storage. Inclusive dates of this collection are 1849 to present. Subject areas covered mirror those in the book collection: St. Thomas Aquinas, Thomistic philosophy and theology, Dominican authors, and the history of the Dominican Order. Materials are in various languages, mainly English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, and Latin.

Archives, manuscripts, correspondences, and/or oral histories
The library manages one archival collection covering the 1992 revision of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and its subsequent translation into English. Access to materials from this collection is available by appointment only; please contact [email protected] for information.

Databases and/or electronic resources External

Dominican House of Studies (Washington, D.C.); Dominicans; Thomas Aquinas, Saint, ca. 1225?-1274; Dominic, Saint, 1170-1221; Biblical studies; Canon law; Catholic Church; Catholic Church—History; Catholic theology