The library was founded in 1802 by the highly patriotic Hungarian aristocrat Count Ferenc Széchényi.

The Museum was merged into the Library and for the last 200 years this is how it has existed, a national depository for written, printed and objective relics of the Hungarian past.

[3] With the influx of periodicals in the 19th century, József Szinnyei Sr. [hu] established the National Newspaper Library in 1884.

[5] Notable items include the original copies of Himnusz, Hungary's national anthem, and Szózat, a Hungarian song.

The library has been digitizing its map collection in recent years to make cultural heritage items more accessible.

[8] In 1949, the Theatre History Collection was established to take over the libraries of the theaters that remained after World War II.

Among other items, it holds 40,000 glass plates or photo and film negatives of the library's book collection.

[11] In 2014, a Hungarian librarian discovered four pages of Mozart's original score (autograph) of the sonata in Budapest's National Széchényi Library.