Some of the most notable visitors to Italy systematically began
to acquire some of the Italian books and manuscripts which were
later incorporated into the collections of King George III, bequeathed
to the Museum by King George IV in 1823, and the splendid Italian
collections formed by Thomas Grenville and bequeathed to the British
Museum in 1846. It was largely the addition of these rich donations
and the wise purchase of several private collections (for example
the purchase of the Collection of Marquis Giovan Battista Costabili
in 1858) which transformed the Italian collections of the British
Museum into one of the most important collections of Italian printed
books anywhere. Antonio Panizzi (1797-1879) the political exile
from the Duchy of Modena, by using his expertise and unique knowledge
of Italian antiquarian books, continued to expand the Italian collections
considerably in the nineteenth century.
Strengths of the Italian Collections
The British Library's Italian Collections are considered to be
among the finest in the world. The collection of 4,460 Italian incunables
is simply the largest and finest single collection of Italian incunables
in the world and represents 43% of the Library's total incunable
holdings. Of these no fewer than 94 are unique bequeathed to the
Library principally by Consul Joseph Smith, King George III and
Thomas Grenville.
The Italian holdings from the sixteenth century to the seventeenth
century are arguably the most extensive and richest collections
outside Italy and contain many unique and many important association
copies. The Italian Collections are strong in history of all periods
from Prehistory to the present, but especially the mediaeval period,
having one of the world's finest collections of city statutes and
city laws, an essential resource for those researching into the
Italian communes ("comuni" and "signorie").
Material on the Renaissance, Enlightenment and Risorgimento is also
equally rich and extensive and much of this is very rare and contains
several unique items. Material on the Unification of Italy, the
Risorgimento, contains such a high proportion of rare items that
it has consequently been microfilmed and is available commercially
(The Risorgimento Collection- Full texts of rare historical
and political materials relating to the unification of Italy,
London: K.G.Saur, 1992).
Since 1975 there has been a concerted effort to acquire some of
the very scarce items published in the First and Second World Wars
and also during the Fascist period. A high proportion of these items
consisted of propaganda material and was anti British- especially
some of the very rare imprints from former Italian Colonies in Africa
-Abyssinia, Eritrea and Somalia. Post-1945 history is also very
well covered i.e. the formation of the new Italian Republic after
the Plebiscite, the growth of all the main Italian political parties,
the Italian "Economic Miracle", conditions and differences
between life in Northern Italy and in the "Mezzogiorno"
etc., etc. and is supported by major Official Publications containing
socio-economic statistics and data.
The Italian Collections of imaginative literature are also extremely
strong and contain the first editions of most Italian authors from
the incunable period to date. The collections of Dante, Petrarch
and Boccaccio are particularly fine as are the collections of contemporary
Italian and Swiss Italian authors.
In recent years several of the now scarce works by the Italian
Futurists including dedication copies signed by Marinetti, Russolo,
Mazza and many others together with many examples of fine quality
Italian printing and "Livres d'artiste" illustrated by
celebrated Italian artists have been purchased. Many of these works
have also been bound in special, often de luxe, bindings which are
works of art in their own right.
The number of items in the Italian Collections has been estimated
at between 800,000 to one million single separate items which represents
approximately 8 to 10 per cent of the total printed output. Other
major strengths of the collections include all periods and aspects
of art, especially catalogues raisonnés, archaeology, anthropology,
architecture, linguistics and dialects especially Italian dialects,
Italian politics and political parties, economics, education, theology,
music, sociology, banditry and the Mafia, design and the history
of typography and printing and bindings, numerous monographs published
by academic institutions e.g. the Accademia della Crusca and the
Accademia dei Lincei, most of the Humanities and Arts Faculties
of many Italian universities including the European University Institute
in Florence, the Gregorian University, American Universities in
Italy, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
and the World Health Organisation.
The Italian Collections - Current Collecting Policy
The Library seeks to acquire current material of research level
interest in the humanities and social sciences published in Italy,
Italian speaking Switzerland, Malta and from former Italian African
colonies, regardless of language, as widely as possible as funds
permit.
Coverage of Italian material is particularly strong in the traditional
mainstream humanities disciplines such as history (all periods),
imaginative literature - all important critical editions which augment
and complement previous and earlier editions in the collections
are especially purchased - language and linguistics including all
Italian and Swiss Italian dialects and Esperanto, art of all periods
including exhibition catalogues, archaeology, architecture, philosophy,
economics, history of printing and the book trade, librarianship,
catalogues of library collections, design, local history and customs
and folklore.
A high proportion of Italian scholarly publishing is devoted to
the study of English, Germanic, East European or classical and patristic
texts or to non Italian civilisations- e.g. Macedonian, Chinese,
Japanese, Indian civilisations etc. which are deemed to be equally
in scope as those on Italian literature and civilisation.
Books on the fine arts, the theatre, archaeology and music (with
the exception of music scores which are collected by the Music Library)
are collected as strongly as history and literature.
Italian material in the social sciences including anthropology,
education and sociology is acquired more selectively. Works on the
history of science e.g. Galileo, Leonardo, are acquired but modern
science and technology are not since these are the responsibility
of Science, Technology &
Business. Owing to recent reductions in funding, the purchase
of books in Italian on law and on theology has been considerably
reduced. With a few exceptions children's books, translations from
other major languages, low scholarly level books and manuals are
not purchased.
