|
 The Biblioteca di storia moderna e contemporanea (www.bsmc.it) documents Italian, European and world history, in particular concerning the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. It was established quite recently and was intended by the Italian parliament as resource for all documents pertaining to the Unification process. The first collection of books, journals and documents was made at the Rome National Library. In 1906 the Ministry of Education proposed a project to create an Institute - a library and museum – to act as an archive of the Risorgimento. In 1934, following the restructuring of historical institutes, the Ministry created two institutes, each of which became repositories of diverse materials: the archive and documentary section formed the Central Museum and Archive of the Risorgimento, while the bibliographic section became the Biblioteca di storia moderna e contemporanea, which was located since 1939 in Palazzo Mattei di Giove.
In 1945 the library passed to the Ministero della pubblica istruzione and in 1974, together with all other public libraries, passed to the Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali (www.beniculturali.it).
The library has approximately 11,000 manuscripts, mainly letters of the major figures of the Risorgimento such as Mazzini, Foscolo, Guerrazzi and Garibaldi as well as of political figures of the liberal and fascist periods and of the First World War; 450,000 books and pamphlets; over 2000 editions of the 16th-17th century, 45,000 19th century editions; 8000 periodicals, divided into the following categories: 2000 of the 18th and 19th centuries; 3000 of the First World War (Italian and foreign) and 1600 of the subsequent periods, in particular of the years 1919-1945.
On line catalogue contains monographic publications and periodicals, both out of date and current; the catalogue forms part of the National Library Service (SBN), which can be consulted on line at www.bsmc.it
The Biblioteca di storia moderna e contemporanea, together with other institutes, participates in a project by making available digital copies of old catalogues and manuscript collections inventories; it also takes part in a project for the creation of digital copies of preunitarian historical reviews. A digital archive of 4600 iconographic documents has been created with the Digima project.
With regard to the IMAGINATION project, the library will participate with its digital repository of content from the First world war.
CONTACT:
Dr. Rosanna De Longis
Biblioteca di storia moderna e contemporanea
Via Michelangelo Caetani, 32
00186 Roma
www.bsmc.it
tel. +39-0668281735
fax +39-0668807662
|
