The archival and book collections listed below are available for consultation by users who expressly request them at the office, during the times indicated on the Hours and locations page of the Library Studies section.
- Barberi Francesco
Francesco Barberi (Rome, b. 1905 - d. 1988), graduated in Literature Studies at "La Sapienza" University of Rome in 1929, specifically in Paleography and Diplomatics.
He was professor of Methodologies of Cataloguing and Archival Studies at our University between 1952 and 1975.
In 1933, he was employed at the National central Library in florence (BNCF), while he was appointed superintendent of the Library Sistem of Apulia and Lucania, with its central headquarters at the Sagarriga Visconti Volpi Library in Bari, Apulia. In 1944, he was director of the Angelica Library in Rome, whereas he was appointed director of the Superior Superintendent Council of Libraries, a part of the Ministry of Education. He was a fellow member of the National Library Association (in Italian, Associazione Italiana Biblioteche, AIB) and he was appointed secretary from 1951 to 1957, also being a director of its Information Bulletin in years 1961-1967 and 1971-1973.
He devoted the latest years of his life to writing essays regarding the history of libraries and of book publishing.
- De Benedictis Michele
Michele De Benedictis (b. 1927, Asmara - d. 2016, Rome) graduated magna cum laude Agricultural Studies at Federico II University in Naples in 1950. He then attended the Graduate School of the Economics and Sociology Department of Iowa State College (Ames, USA), where he became Master of Science in Agricultural Economics in 1955.
In 1957 he was the first Italian student to earn his PhD at the same Department of Iowa State College. He took an active role in the project and foundation in 1959 of the Manlio Rossi-Doria Center for Agricultural Studies, belonging to the Federico II University of Naples. He became one of the youngest professors of the newly founded Institute and so he began his academic career. In 1960, he became assistant teacher, then regular teacher, of Economics and Agricultural Politics at the Federico II University. He teaches at Berkeley during the academic year 1964-65, precisely at the Department of Agricultural Economics of UCLA. After that, he was once again appointed teacher at the Federico II University of Naples, where he also became director of the Economics and Politics Institute and of the Specialization Center for Economical and Agricultural Research for the Development of Southern Italy. In 1978, he was the first appointed teacher for the newly founded tenure of Economics and Agricultural Politics at "La Sapienza" University of Rome. In these years he conducted his research work with the cooperation of Vincenzo Cosentino, which will lead to the publishing of Applications of Principles of Agricultural Economics to the Farm Business. Theory and Practice. He earned the Saint-Vincent price thanks to this publication.
Between the years 1967 and 1986, he was employed at the National Council for Economy and Work Policies (in Italian, Consiglio Nazionale dell'Economia e del Lavoro, CNEL). His interest in Agricultural Politics also encompassed environmental aspects and he deepened this concern by undertaking study missions in the USA (Universities of Arizona, of California and of Berkeley in years 1986-87, then again in 1995). In 1988, he founded the specialized magazine Agricultural Matters and Issues (in Italian: QA - La Questione Agraria), of which he became director in 2000. A recurring theme in his publications is the concern for agricultural policies in Southern Italy - e.g. the articles he published in the 70s and 80s on specialized magazines such as Modern Southern Italy (in Italian: Nuovo Mezzogiorno) and Economics and Politics (in Italian: Politica ed Economia). In 2006, he also published the historical essay Science in Southern Italy after the Unification of Italy (in Italian: La scienza nel Mezzogiorno dopo l’Unità d’Italia).
Thanks to his academic efforts, De Benedictis earns recognition from many fellowships and society - e.g. the Accademia dei Lincei, the International Society of Agricultural Economics (in Italian Società Internazionale di Economia Agraria, IEEA). He became professor emeritus of "La Sapienza" University of Rome. His last recognition was on behalf of the Italian Association of Practical Agricultural Economics (in Italian: Associazione Italiana di Economia Agraria e Applicata).
After he passed away, his family decided to donate his library assets to "La Sapienza", more specifically to the Library of Library Studies, belonging to the Faculty of Document and Archive Studies. The assets include documents regarding not only his academic and professional career, but also personal and private aspects of his life. Some of the documents included embody his developed interest for arts, music and poetry in particular. There are 99 paper envelopes of various dimensions in the assets, divided into 381 sub-sections.
Reference: Marconato Chiara, Uno sguardo privato su meridionalismo e sviluppo sostenibile: L'archivio di Michele De Benedictis [dissertation], Roma: Università degli Studi "La Sapienza", a.a. 2022-2023.
- Faiola Luciana
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
- Federici Vincenzo
Vincenzo Federici (b. Monterotondo, 1871 - d. Rome, 1953) was among the most celebrated researchers in the field of Paleography and Ancient Diplomacy. His academic career began in 1899, when he started teaching Paleography and Ancient Diplomacy at "La Sapienza" University of Rome. He was also appointed head of the Cabinet of Paleography and director of the Institute of Paleography. He was also a member of the Roman society for national history )in Italian: Società romana di storia patria), of which he was also president in years 1943-1953. During the period from 1918 to 1952, hewas also director of the publishing works regarding the Italian archive of Paleography (in Italian: Archivio paleografico italiano).
The archival fund named after him was donated to the School of Specialization for Archive and Library Professionals (in Italian: Scuola Speciale per Archivisti e bibliotecari, SSAB) in 1996 by will of Nora Federici, the scholar's daughter. Important reconstruction works and studies on the fund were started by Nicoletta Venanzi and then continued by Flavio Carbone and Francesca Nemore.
The fund includes mainly documents and papers regarding the scholar's interests and areas of study, as well as letters and Nora Federici's papers. There are less than 40 volumes in the library fund, which was probably larger, although no information about the lost remaining part has been found so far.
Reference: Carbone, F., Nemore, F., Da un ritrovamento inatteso a un archivio dimenticato: le carte di Vincenzo Federici, in «Nuovi Annali della Scuola Speciale per Archivisti e Bibliotecari», Firenze, Olschki, 30 (2016).
- Mandillo Anna Maria
Anna Maria Mandillo (b. 1940 - d. 2014, Rome) graduated in Literature in 1964 from the University of Rome, winning the competition for librarians the same year. Her service began in 1965 at the National Library of Rome, where she mainly dealt with the cataloguing procedures of new assets and, later, with the consultation rooms.
In 1980 she moved to the Central Institute for Cataloguing (in Italian Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico, ICCU), where she made a strong friendship with director Angela Vinay, Head of the Bibliographic Information Service. From 1986 she became deputy director, holding the direction for some periods, becoming Head of laboratory for bibliographic information in 1988 and Head of the General Coordination Service in 1996. During this period she tried to improve the relationship between ICCU and the Central National Libraries of Rome and Florence, hoping for an increasingly effective collaboration.
From 2006 until her retirement the following year, she was director of the Vallicelliana Library.
She was also a member of the National Council of Cultural Heritage from 1988 to 1992, of numerous ministerial commissions, vice-president of the Bianchi Bandinelli Association from 2006 to 2014 and dealt with the creation and development of the Registry of Italian Libraries and the magazine DigItalia. Anna Maria Mandillo's commitment to the Registry, born in the 1980s as a simple census project and supported by her until the end of her career, deserves further study; the initial purpose, often thanks to the strength of the librarian alone, has been largely overcome, making it today a real catalog that incorporates the information of more than 13,000 Italian libraries, put in contact through an open source web.
Anna Maria Mandillo's activity and civic engagement, as well as her professional interests, was broad and developed. Her effort mainly involved legal deposit, interlibrary loan and copyright procedures.
As a colleague of hers, Luca Bellingeri, commented on her career: "[...] the description of her professional career and the positions she has carried out are not sufficient to fully convey the figure of Mandillo, who has always been politically committed, in the broadest sense of this the term, in favor of libraries, intended as an irreplaceable instrument of civil and democratic growth in the country."
- Mariotti Bianchi
Umberto Mariotti Bianchi (Rome, b. 1926 – d. 2011) graduated in Law and was a lawyer for his entire life, mainly in the field of civil law. His effort as a researcher about Ancient Roman Law was extensive and included his activity as a writer and journalist in cooperation with various specializad magazines.
He was also a fellow member of the Roman Law Scholars Association (in Italian: Gruppo dei Romanisti) and was one of its counselors for many years, then even becoming vice-president and president.
He earned the Borghese Prize for his extensive cultural engagement in 2011. His activity counts many dissertations and essays aroud the theme of Roman Law.
After he passed away, a section of his family library - mainly volumes regarding Law and Historical Studies - were donated to the Library of Library Studies, one of the operating sections of the Library of Modern Literature and Cultural Studies of "La Sapienza" University of Rome. The donated volumes currently constitute an archival fund named after his memory.
- Morpurgo Davies Anna
After an initial approach to scientific studies, Anna Elbina Morpurgo Davies (b. Milan, 1937 - d. Oxford, 2014) began her studies at “La Sapienza'' University of Rome and graduated in 1959. Her studies were made known thanks to a number of articles and the publication of Mycenaeae Graecitatis Lexicon in 1963, which is still regarded as an authority in the field of ancient Mycenaean language studies.
In her academic career, she was an associate professor at Oxford University in 1962, a teacher at “La Sapienza” University of Rome and at Somerville University in 1971.
Her academic awards and achievements include:
- a Junior fellowship of the Center for Hellenic Studies of Harvard University (1961-62);
- Honorary degree from St. Andrew’s University of Scotland;
- Member nomination of celebrated institutes and academic associations, e.g. the London Society of Antiquaries, the British Academy, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Linguistic Society of America, Accademia dei Lincei, etc.
- Honorary Dame Commander of the British Empire;
- The posthumous nomination of a series of annual conferences held by the British Academy and the Philological Society.
- The establishment of a scholarship named after her by the Phylological Society.
- Solimine Giovanni
Giovanni Solimine (b. Bagnoli Irpino, Avellino, 1951), is a university professor of Librarianship and Book, Publishing, Reading at the University of Rome La Sapienza, where directs the Department of Modern Literature and Cultural Studies.
He was also previously a professor at the University of Tuscia, the University of Calabria, the University of Udine and the University of Urbino.
Since 2006 he has been teaching at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the "La Sapienza" University of Rome, where he has directed the Department of Documentary, Linguistic-Philological and Geographic Sciences from 2015 to 2018 and the Department of Book and Document Sciences from 2008 to 2010. Between 2011-2014, he directed the School of Specialization in Archival and Book Heritage. Since 2011 he has been delegate of the Rector and President of the Sapienza Library System (in Italian: Sistema bibliotecario sapienza, SBS). He also represents "La Sapienza" in the Library Commission of CRUI (Conference of Rectors of Italian Universities).
He has been librarian at the Ministry for Cultural and Environmental Heritage since 1977. He was also national president of the AIB (Italian Library Association) from 1988 to 1990.
Since 2017 he has been president of the “Maria e Goffredo Bellonci” Foundation, which deals with the promotion of reading and organizes the "Strega" Award (in Italian: Premio Strega). On designation by the CUN, he represents the Ministry of University and Research in the National Coordination Committee SBN (National Library Service), which operates at the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities.
From 2012 to 2017 he chaired the "Book Forum", of which he is now honorary president.
A regular contributor to librarianship magazines, he was director of:
- the AIB Bulletin (Italian magazine of Librarianship and Information Science) from 2001 to 2010;
- Books and Magazines of Italy from 2009 to 2014;
- currently director of the magazine Libraries Today Trends.