The national census of sixteenth-century Italian editions aims at surveying the Italian printed production of the sixteenth century. The database describes editions printed between 1501 and 1600 in Italy, in any language, and abroad in the Italian language. It also includes authority files for personal and corporate names, uniform titles, publishers, printers’ devices and places of printing, as well as an archive of bibliographic references.

Conceived as a survey of the editions preserved in Italian libraries, after the inclusion of records from bibliographic sources and the opening to foreign libraries, EDIT16 is today the Italian national bibliography for the sixteenth century, edited by the Department for the bibliography, cataloguing and survey of early printed books of the ​Central Institute for the Union Catalogue of Italian libraries and for bibliographic information.

The Census of sixteenth-century Italian editions is the result of a partnership involving 1,600 libraries, including including State libraries, local authority libraries, university libraries, libraries of cultural institutes, of ecclesiastical institutions and private libraries, both in Italy and abroad.