K.Pizzi, 31/01/2005, 16:20
LITERARY ARCHIVES
‘Literary archives’ as such exist alongside libraries or library-cum-archive (an archive can be accommodated inside a library or the two may co-exist). Some not specifically literary archives may include a substantial literary section or host important literary resources. Others are fondi arising from private bequests or lasciti and it is always a good idea to explore all special collections hosted by any particular library.
In some cases, collections are run privately, say by family members of the author(s) involved. In some cases they may be run on a shoestring, they may be semi-official (they do not appear anywhere and carry no catalogues nor web-sites: the only way for you to become aware of them is by word of mouth or by a stroke of good luck) they may be run in amateurish but in many cases really creative, energetic ways (I have been to archives hosted, quite literally, in the sitting room of a private home and you may have to work round the daily routines of the family).
I will begin by making some general points before looking in some detail at a number of archives in Italy I have had the fortune (or, in some, albeit few, cases, not) to use in the course of my career.
1. GENERAL POINTS
If you need to use a literary archive as part of your research this will usually happen in the 2nd (or 3rd) year of your studies. You may need to work there for a few hours, checking references, or you may need a couple of weeks, even months (or longer) depending on the content and nature of your project.
-Italy.
It is important to check the opening and closing times (Italy as a whole comes to a standstill over the lunch break, but interpretations of the lunch break can span from 1 hour to … infinity). Long lunch breaks normally are compensated with longer opening hours (be prepared to be flexible with your time and adapt to the country: wake up earlier in the morning and eat later in the evening).
Archives may be very small and may rely on the ‘buon cuore’ or the ‘buona salute’ of one staff alone (or part of their time).
-Befriend archivists! Ask them, within reason, to check those missing references for you if you did not have the opportunity because of some unexpected opening-closure problems.
-Seasonal closures (August is off-limits in Italy, but it is worth remembering that August can stretch as far and wide as, say the 10th of July to late in September
-Clearing permission to use certain archs –you may need to seek intercession from above. My advice here is: arrive well prepared, always bring with you a letter by your supervisor or your Head of Department.
-Work out in advance before you leave:
1. how long you intend to stay in Italy,
2. A plan,
3. Accommodation (from friends and family to hotel rooms. Incidentally, language schools in Italy tend to be a good source of information on short-term accommodation in Italy).
4. Train times etc.
5. Decide in advance how much you intend to achieve, but leave also space open for inevitable delays,
In short, remain open-minded and flexible at all times.
Where do you start?
-Talk to your supervisor and other senior researchers in your field: their advice is invaluable. It is often a supervisor or a colleague in your field who can provide the most useful advice on where to start (this is one of the most important things supervisors are there for!) When you have worked out a list of archives
-look for it on the Web. A Website, if there is one, can hold much useful information: not merely academic but also practical (e.g. location, opening/closing times, who to contact). Contact archivists via email. Some would actually go as far as suggesting you can work entirely from the UK, with skilful use of Internet resources. Obviously a lot depends on what you are working on (e.g. if your research is, say, ‘lunari e almanacchi’ in the XVI-XVII century, you will not be able to get away without visiting, at the very least, the Archivio di Stato in Bologna and the Biblioteca Ariostea in Ferrara).
-start from the largest/richest archive, particularly if you are still defining your project, talk to staff, spend some time browsing around, explore the catalogue(s), and become acquainted with the facilities.
Once you have clarified your ideas and worked out a research plan, it is now time to start approaching the more specialised archives.
-Keep a record on file, on disk on an index card of each archive visited and jot down what particular interest/relevance each holds for your research.
-Don’t forget those institutions operating in your native language with branches in Italy. I am thinking of the Istituto Europeo in Fiesole, of the Johns Hopkins University Bologna Centre, the Goethe Institutes, the Instituto Cervantes etc. Many of these institutions have welcoming, accessible libraries and archives whose staff is English/German/French speaking, often holding references in your own language. These institutes can often be useful to you, at least in the initial stages, to familiarise yourself with the country and the topic of your research.
2. ARCHIVI
My choice was dictated by the topics of my interest (modern and contemporary Italian literature, the north-eastern borders of Italy, women’s literature, popular culture and children’s literature, avant-garde figurative and performing arts) and the disciplines involved (Italian literature, obviously, but also history, cultural history, gender studies, touching on anthropology, art history, Jewish studies). If your research is interdisciplinary, this is wonderful, but could be dispersive.
ARCHIVI LETTERARI/BIBLIOTECHE
Fondo Manoscritti: founded by Maria Corti in 1969, this is one of the richest and most wonderful manuscript collection of modern and contemporary literature in Italy. The list is impressive: (in alphabetical order, from Alvaro and Arbasino to Bacchelli and Banti to Calvino, Debenedetti, Gadda, from Carlo Levi to Ada Negri, from Ginzburg to Saba to Ungaretti and Zanzotto). They have a comprehensive and user-friendly website, their catalogue is on-line and the members of staff are helpful. You must book an appointment but they have decent opening times. However, it may have changed from the early 1990s. This is one of the most legendary literary archives I am aware of Italy and I cannot tell you the emotion of holding in my hands the autograph of Umberto Saba’s novel Ernesto.
Archivio del Novecento: hosted in the basement of the Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia in the middle of La Sapienza in Rome and directed by Prof.Bernardini (address all enquiries to her directly). They have a web-site, listing their holdings (Bernari, Aleramo, Manzini, Masino, Mattacotta, Bontempelli, and the Futurists Folgore, Orazi and Prampolini) but no on-line catalogue. Really difficult to get to, but once there, the archivist of the Futurist collection (Dr. Alessandro Taddei) was extremely helpful and kind. You Must book an appointment.
Archiginnasio. This is a proper library in the centre of Bologna. Bring your passport with you or ID card. This library is now open in the summer (with air conditioning). The Fondi speciali arise from 200 single archives (including correspondence and works of Bolognese interest, such as fondo Cuccoli: collected papers of the XIX century Bolognese puppet master Cuccoli, or Gozzadini). Of these 200 original archives, only three have an on-line catalogue: Gaspari, Antonio Cervi and Frati-Sorbelli). Expect more restrictive opening times. Their web-site is excellent.
Museo Svevo. There is no archive as such here (but see the adjacent Biblioteca Civica), and it is essential to visit if you carry out work on Svevo: they host frequent exhibitions. They produce CDRoms and educational material on Svevo. Staff are competent and helpful.
BNCF: Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Firenze. One of the national libraries in Italy, a must for Italian scholars of any period. They have an on-line catalogue, though it is not complete. If you work in the pre-modern period, you will find a number of wonderful Fondi: Fondo Magliabechiano; Raccolta Palatina (originating from the Florentine Biblioteca Palatina of 1861 and including Fondo Galileo -hosting the papers of Galileo); Fondo Pareto and many others. Unfortunately the catalogues (excluding Galileo) are not on-line and can only be accessed from index-cards or books on-site. An interesting feature of the BNCF is the emeroteca in Forte Belvedere, specialising in recovering material damaged in the 1966 flood and hosting journals, newspapers, illustrated magazines, and comics (you can consult and photocopy them but cannot take anything out).
Estense. Arising from the old ‘biblioteca ducale’ of the XIV century, this is also a fantastic collection with holdings both in the pre-modern and modern period. Estense have a rich web-site and is very good for images of their incunabula and cinquecentine, but their catalogue is regrettably generic (working across the whole group of libraries of the Polo Modenese). Easily accessible (with ID). Modena has also some little know, smaller libraries, really good on modern and contemporary literature and culture (e.g Civica in C.so Canalgrande, Fondazione Panini, biblioteche di quartiere). Easily accessible.
BNC Roma. Don’t go there. Its lack of efficiency is legendary. Braidense is very good though tends to be crowded (the Sormani/Civica in Milan is also excellent: if your research is slanted in the direction of modern Italian history/society/politics, you needn’t look further).
Archivio Giunti. It is attached to publishers Giunti in Florence and they hold their own, in-house material as well as the archive of the publishers Bemporad, whom they incorporated in the 1930s. It is located on a really beautiful hill just outside of Florence (you can walk from Florence in 40 mins and it is the most beautiful landscape in the world). It is a very professional set-up with a luminous reading room, a full-time archivist who is very helpful and other archivists who help on a voluntary basis. It is worth your while to check archives attached to the main literary publishers, as well as archives of major newspapers and magazines (e.g. the Corriere della Sera holds an important archive and if you work on writers who were contributors of Corriere, say D’Annunzio, Pirandello or Buzzati, you may well want to pay them a visit).
Biblioteca delle donne. A really mysterious institution. It is run by the Centro delle Donne Orlando in Bologna. I have never been able to find a catalogue, consult any book, or talk to any staff. The library has moved around various times and I understand their holdings are significant, but it remains a mystery to me to this day. (There is no Website, but the address is: Via de' Pignattari 1, 2° floor)
40124 Bologna Tel.0039+051+23.97.88fax 0039+051+26.34.60).
Fondazione Rubino. Antonio Rubino was a painter, illustrator, writer who co-founded Il corriere dei Piccoli, in 1908 and directed Topolino in the 1940s. The collection is outstanding and, it used to be hosted by his niece Antonietta, an extremely simpatica signora who kept all material in her living room. The archive has now been given a more dignified home in the Pinacoteca Civica in Bajardo (Liguria) where Rubino died, but is still not catalogued. Apart from work by/on Rubino, there is some interesting correspondence, for example with Calvino. (Incidentally, if you are interested in children’s literature, you will find the Fondazione Collodi in Pistoia useful, especially though not exclusively, for works on Pinocchio). Much the same could be said of Archivio Stuparich, run by Stuparich’s daughter Giovanna in her own home in Rome. Much that remains unpublished is hosted there but you have to go past Signora Giovanna who is extremely generous with her time but also really intrusive of your research.
Archivio Futurista. This is a legendarily exhaustive, large archive held by Enrico Crispolti, one of the main living experts on the Futurist avant-garde. The archivio is located in Siena, but it is the exclusive possession of Crispolti who keeps it all for himself.
Archivio SIAE. Via Tuscolana. Good on theatre, cinema, visual arts and related literature.
Cassa Risparmio. Good on images, museums and exhibitions. You must book to obtain access. It is worth checking banks on the web: they can often hold surprises.
Mediateca. This is Bologna’s most recent library and jewel. It is architecturally futuristic and high-tech. It has really good holdings in modern and contemporary literature and theory (not exclusively Italian) and is also extremely well stocked in CDRoms, CDs, Videotapes, DVDs. It is also extremely good on popular culture: the ‘sezione ragazzi’ is unrivalled, music, film, comics are all covered. Its catalogue is on-line. Drawbacks: it is bang in the centre and tends to be extremely popular and crowded at all times. It hard to do any work there but it is a borrowing library so you can take books, CDs, DVDs home with you.
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