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The Leonardo da  Vinci International Library of Music, Arts and Languages, situated in the Ribeira quarter of Salv ador di Bahia, in a historic building with its eclectic, almost liberty-style architecture, dating from the end of the nineteenth century, contains a collection of 12,000 books, periodicals, opera libretti, CDs, LPs, video and audio cassettes in six European languages—Italian, English, Portuguese, French, German and Spanish—specialized in:
Music – international encyclopedias, periodicals, biographies and studies, CDs, LPs, video cassettes, audio cassettes, DVDs, with scores of orchestral, symphonic and chamber music, operas, opera libretti, scores for piano and voice, mostly of classical and contemporary European music, but also jazz and Brazilian and international popular music.
 Theater & Ballet – works, essays, biographies and original theatrical pieces in the Italian language and other European languages, with auxiliary visual materials such as films and videos of various famous works.
Fine Arts - international art dictionaries, books from the most important museums of the world, biographies on artists and architects.
Literature - dictionaries in various European languages, encyclopedias, books, periodicals and essays on international literature in the original languages or in Italian or Portuguese translations.
Film – a collection of approximately 800 international films in video cassette or DVD.
Tourism & Geography - books, tourist guides, posters, audio cassettes, DVDs, booklets, periodicals about the world’s most important countries, cities and natural attractions, including maps, CD-ROMs and video cassettes.
 History, Politics & Philosophy – books, periodicals, posters, CD-ROMs and video cassettes of the history of various countries of Europe, the Americas and Asia, including essays, works and biographies of the most important philosophers and politicians.
Psychology & Sociology – books, periodicals, essays, from ancient psychology to Freud, Jung, Fromm, Reich and the North American psychologists.
Communications, Globalization & Linguistics – books, periodicals, essays, posters and CD-ROMs.
Criticism – texts, books, periodicals, booklets on musical criticism with the complete works of Theodor W. Adorno; art, literature and theater criticism with authors such as Umberto Eco, Boulez, Mila, Stravinsky, Debussy, Schumann, Silvio and Fedele D’Amico, Roland Barthes, Cesare Brandi, etc.
Computer science & Web design – methods, books, guides, courses and dictionaries of computer teaching and web design.
Cinema, Photography & TV – books of historical photos, such as Nadar and Cartier-Bresson, photography courses, film technique, biographies of actors and actresses, directors and photographers.
Fashion – the fashion collection is formed mainly of periodicals in French and Italian, with complete series dating from the 1930s.
Religion – books, biographies of saints, holy books of various religions, from Christianity to Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Hebrew, Candomblé, etc.
Antique book collection – the Leonardo da Vinci Library contains some rare works including volumes published in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, mostly books on music, literature and religion.
 The complete collection of the Leonardo da Vinci Library, property of the journalist, musicologist and writer Pietro Gallina, was loaded on a boat from Salerno in Italy and crossed the ocean to Salvador de Bahia, to be placed at the disposition of the Brazilian people, to learn languages and to learn about music and art in the “First World,” with the intention and hope that with this material, they can study and better understand those countries, building a better understanding and an equal exchange with the cultural patrimony of the Bahia region, of Brazil, and of South America.
The Library is a non-profit association that, besides offering a normal service to readers and researchers, distinguishes itself as a promoter of reading, especially in foreign languages. It also proposes to organize cultural and artistic events, courses in  languages, music, theater and tourism in the spacious rooms of its seat. It is a direct offshoot of the Instituto di Cultura Brasile Italia Europa, or ICBIE.
The library is beginning to receive books from international and Brazilian publishers, and also donations made by foreign individuals, especially because books are the only goods that are exempted from import taxes.
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