Biblioteche effimere. Biblioteche circolanti a Venezia (xix - xx secolo)

Il libro si occupa del fenomeno di biblioteche ‘a consumo’, nate grazie a private iniziative per affrontare il desiderio di lettura di ceti meno abbienti a Venezia nel XIX-XX secolo. I luoghi concessi “pro tempore” per allestire la biblioteca, la qualità dei libri, la mancanza dei finanziamenti e addetti al lavoro, oltre che l’uso frequente e quindi il rapido deterioramento dei libri, e il cambiamento avvenuto nei gusti della lettura, rendevano queste biblioteche obsolete dopo qualche decennio di vita. I saggi inclusi ritraggono il profilo di queste biblioteche popolari, talvolta sparite senza lasciare traccia, per offrire uno sguardo diverso alla cultura e alla lettura a Venezia nel XIX e XX secolo

La Serenissima in scena. Da Goldoni a Paolini

Aspetti diversi, dall'Illuminismo ad oggi, della scena veneziana e veneta, nella centralità del rapporto tra interprete e autore, figure spesso coincidenti

Grounded: History, Materiality and Myth at the Sacro Bosco of Bomarzo

This thesis considers the relationship between history, materiality and myth in the Sacro Bosco of Bomarzo (c.1550–1580), a site that encompasses roughly three hectares of woodland filled with carved peperino sculptures of monsters and marvels. Frequently framed as an outlier, Bomarzo’s position within studies of Italian Renaissance garden design has always been uncomfortable. This thesis provides a detailed consideration of the Sacro Bosco’s long history through the lens of art history and the site’s beholders, both within the sixteenth century and in key moments of its subsequent reception. In doing so this thesis opens up the study of Bomarzo to questions and concerns beyond that of attribution, iconography and patronage. Instead, interpretative frames grounded in the interests and concerns of the site’s intended visitors, from antiquarianism and popular forms of literature to natural history and geologic disasters, situate the Sacro Bosco in the complex social and cultural matrix from which it was produced and in which it was received. In particular, a case is made for the central role of the immediate physical surroundings––the area’s history, geology and topography––when seeking to understand the space. It is a site that should be seen as engaging with regional concerns. In focussing on the site’s afterlife, moreover, this thesis is interested in how canons have been formed within Garden and Landscape Studies and Renaissance Art History, and how the past is reinterpreted at different moments according to shifting political agendas, and social and cultural horizons

LUIGI FERDINANDO MARSILI (1658-1730) E L'EDITORIA ERUDITA NELLA REPUBBLICA DELLE LETTERE TRA SEI E SETTECENTO

The research aims to investigate the epistolary network of Luigi Ferdinando Marsili (1658-1730), soldier, scientist and founder of the Institute of Sciences in Bologna. Marsili has been studied mainly in relation to his military and diplomatic activity and to his contribution to natural science. Nevertheless his role as an active member of the Republic of Letters between Seventeenth and Eighteenth century has been neglected by historiography. My research aims to fill this gap and to demonstrate the integration of Marsili in the european scientific community through the analysis of his epistolary connections with a large number of scientists and hommes de lettres. The consultation of the private archive of Marquis Bevilacqua Ariosti in Bologna, which conserves more than 6000 (almost forgotten) letters received by Marsili, was essential to achieve a deeper knowledge of these connections and to integrate the existing information, acquired through the materials held by the University Library of Bologna. In particular the letters exchanged with the editors of his scientific works represent an important starting point in order to understand Marsili\u2019s position in the international book market in the early modern period. The epistolary documents allow, in conclusion, to design a quite new portrait of his activity as author and patron

RACCOGLIERE, ORDINARE ED ESPORRE NEI MUSEI STORICI. LE FONTI SULLA GRANDE GUERRA NEL MUSEO DEL RISORGIMENTO DI MILANO TRA STORIA CULTURALE E ARCHIVAL TURN (1915-1943)

L\u2019analisi storica delle pratiche museali di Public History riconduce ad un piano propriamente storiografico il rapporto \u2013 per alcuni antitetico \u2013 tra scienza e uso pubblico della storia. Per riflettere sulle implicazioni sociali e politiche di queste forme di narrazione del passato, la ricerca ricostruisce la formazione e lo sviluppo della raccolta di fonti sulla Grande guerra in seno al Museo del Risorgimento di Milano nel periodo tra le due guerre mondiali. Pi\uf9 precisamente, assumendo le prospettive della storia culturale, la ricerca si interroga sul ruolo che l\u2019immaginario storico reificato in un allestimento museale ha avuto nel processo di nazionalizzazione delle masse in Italia. L\u2019approfondimento della figura e dell\u2019opera di Antonio Monti (direttore, 1925-45) ha permesso di inquadrare il processo di formazione e sviluppo dell\u2019Archivio-Museo di Guerra all\u2019interno di un contesto sociale, politico e scientifico che precisa le conoscenze fino ad oggi acquisite dagli studi circa la dinamica tra centro e periferia, e circa le fasi della memoria sulla guerra. Oltre allo studio delle fonti documentarie di diversa natura conservate presso le Civiche Raccolte Storiche di Milano (es. documenti cartacei, carteggi, cimeli, opere grafiche), la ricerca si \ue8 avvalsa di fonti a stampa (opuscoli, volumi e periodici) e fonti archivistiche proprie. Tra quelle primarie, le principali sono i registri di carico, gli schedari, i cataloghi e gli altri strumenti di corredo prodotti dal museo; queste fonti sono state considerate dal punto di vista quantitativo e qualitativo, sia nell\u2019aspetto materiale che in quello immateriale. A partire dall\u2019analisi archivistica, dallo studio della prassi di gestione documentaria e dalla relazione tra spazio organizzato e spazio descritto, le pratiche museali di narrazione sulla Grande guerra sono state considerate anzitutto come organizzazione materiale dello spazio (nell\u2019archivio, nella biblioteca e nel museo). La storia museale delle fonti ricostruisce le reti di relazioni che conferiscono significato al patrimonio storico conservato, spostando l\u2019attenzione dal piano dell\u2019immaterialit\ue0 delle rappresentazioni a quello della materialit\ue0 delle fonti. La sintesi interpretativa si \ue8 avvalsa invece di categorie antropologiche: nello scambio continuo tra realt\ue0 e immaginazione, il museo opera come dispositivo di risignificazione, che \u2013 attraverso le azioni precipue di raccogliere, ordinare ed esporre \u2013 modifica le reti di relazioni tra le fonti trasformando di conseguenza il loro stesso significato. Il museo storico, che sancisce attraverso il dono un patto sociale con il pubblico, \ue8 lo spazio del rituale di passaggio che accoglie la fase di riaggregazione delle memorie private nella dimensione pubblica della storia della nazione. Attraverso questo rituale, il significato dell\u2019esperienza di guerra viene trasformato da evento traumatico legato al lutto a mito di rigenerazione in continuit\ue0 col Risorgimento. In conclusione, l\u2019analisi del caso milanese ha permesso di evidenziare le specificit\ue0 delle reti di relazioni facendo emergere i diversi significati celati dalla rappresentazione oleografica conforme alla \u201cmemoria totalitaria\u201d imposta dal fascismo. Infine, l\u2019approccio scientifico che emerge da queste pratiche di uso pubblico della storia \ue8 stato identificato nella prodizione di strumenti che dessero conto dello spostamento delle fonti nello spazio durante la loro storia museale.The historical analysis of museums\u2019 Public History practices brings the relation between science and public use of history \u2013 often regarded as antithetical - into the historiographical dimension. In order to reflect on the social and political implications of these types of narration of the past, our research reconstructs the formation and development of the collection of the Great War sources from Milan Museum of Risorgimento between the two World Wars. By taking the standpoint of Cultural History, our research questions the role that the historical imagery, embodied in a museum installation, has had in the process of nationalization of the masses in Italy. The follow-up on the figure and work of Antonio Monti (Director, 1925-45) enabled us to frame the process of formation and development of the War Archive-Museum within a social, political and scientific context that clarifies the knowledge gathered so far about the dynamics between center and periphery, as well as about the phases of the memory of war. Besides the study of documentary sources of various nature from Milan\u2019s Civiche Raccolte Storiche (eg. paper documents, correspondence, memorabilia, graphics), the research made use of published sources (brochures, volumes, periodics) and proper archival sources. Among the primary archival sources, the main ones are the registers, card files, catalogs, and the other sets of documentation produced by the museum. The material and immaterial aspects of these sources have been analyzed from both a qualitative and a quantitative point of view. Starting from the archive analysis, from the study of the document management system, and finanlly from the relation between organized and described space, the museum practices concerning the Great War narration have been mainly construed as a material organization of the space (respectively in the archive, in the library, and in the museum). The museum history of the sources reshapes the relational network that gives meaning to the preserved historic heritage, shifting the focus from the immateriality of the representations to the materiality of the sources. On the other hand, the interpretative synthesis made use of anthropological cathegories: within the continuous exchange between reality and imagination, the museum acts as a resignification device that, through the actions of gathering, organizing and displaying, modifies the relational network between the sources, therefore changing their meaning. The history museum enshrines a social pact with the public through the gift, and becomes the scenery of a rite of passage that accomodates the reaggregation of private memories into the public dimension of the history of the nation. Through this rite, the meaning of the war experience is turned from a traumatic event linked to mourning, into a rigeneration myth, thus continuing the action of the Risorgimento. In conclusion, the analysis of the Milan case has allowed us to highlight the specificity of relational networks, unravelling the different meanings hidden by the oleographic representation consistent with the \u201ctotalitarian memory\u201d imposed by the Fascist regime. Lastly, the scientific approach emerging from such practices of public use of history has been identified in the production of instruments that allow one to account for the spatial movement of the sources during their museum history

Ministers of ‘the Black Art’: the engagement of British clergy with photography, 1839-1914

This thesis examines the work of ordained clergymen, of all denominations, who were active photographers between 1839 and the beginning of World War One: its primary aim is to investigate the extent to which a relationship existed between the religious culture of the individual clergyman and the nature of his photographic activities. Ministers of ‘the Black Art’ makes a significant intervention in the study of the history of photography by addressing a major weakness in existing work. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the research draws on a wide range of primary and secondary sources such as printed books, sermons, religious pamphlets, parish and missionary newsletters, manuscript diaries, correspondence, notebooks, biographies and works of church history, as well as visual materials including original glass plate negatives, paper prints and lantern slides held in archival collections, postcards, camera catalogues, photographic ephemera and photographically-illustrated books. Through close readings of both textual and visual sources, my thesis argues that factors such as religious denomination, theological opinion and cultural identity helped to influence not only the photographs taken by these clergymen, but also the way in which these photographs were created and used. Conversely, patterns also emerge that provide insights into how different clergymen integrated their photographic activities within their wider religious life and pastoral duties. The relationship between religious culture and photographic aesthetics explored in my thesis contributes to a number of key questions in Victorian Studies, including the tension between clergy and professional scientists as they struggled over claims to authority, participation in debates about rural traditions and church restoration, questions about moral truth and objectivity, as well as the distinctive experience and approaches of Roman Catholic clergy. The research thus demonstrates the range of applications of clerical photography and the extent to which religious factors were significant. Almost 200 clergymen-photographers have been identified during this research, and biographical data is provided in an appendix. Ministers of the Black Art aims at filling a gap in scholarship caused by the absence of any substantial interdisciplinary research connecting the fields of photohistory and religious studies. While a few individual clergymen-photographers have been the subject of academic research – perhaps excessively in the case of Charles Dodgson – no attempt has been made to analyse their activities comprehensively. This thesis is therefore unique in both its far-ranging scope and the fact that the researcher has a background rooted in both theological studies and the history of photography. Ecclesiastical historians are generally as unfamiliar with the technical and aesthetic aspects of photography as photohistorians are with theological nuances and the complex variations of Victorian religious beliefs and practices. This thesis attempts to bridge this gulf, making novel connections between hitherto disparate fields of study. By bringing these religious factors to the foreground, a more nuanced understanding of Victorian visual culture emerges; by taking an independent line away from both the canonical historiography of photography and more recent approaches that depict photography as a means of social control and surveillance, this research will stimulate further discussion about how photography operates on the boundaries between private and public, amateur and professional, material and spiritual