The current ancient archives were designed by Ponti specifically to house the impressive bookcases now found there. Originally built in the latter 1600s for the convent of Santa Giustìna, the Flemish artist Michael Bartens, who used rosewood, box, pear, and Swedish oak, decorated in bas-relief with various still life motifs.

When Napoleon ordered monastic orders to be suppressed in 1822, the bookcases were moved to the Sala dei Gigànti in Piazza Capitaniàto, which was the home of the university library at that time. They remained there even when the book collections were transferred to a specially-built construction in Via San Biagio, in 1912, and which is still their home.

In the twentieth-century renovation of Palazzo del Bo, Rector Anti requested a special room to house the ancient bookshelves, which were promptly filled with the papers of the various faculties and personal student files, including final examinations and graduation reports, dated 1816 to 1866.