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The English-speaking researcher in Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Steven Miller
Steven Miller*
Affiliation:
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery Road, The Domain, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Italy is celebrated for its outstanding patrimony in art and architecture. Less known are its equally rich libraries and archives. English researchers are sometimes daunted by the perceived barriers of language, cataloguing and access when they contemplate exploring these collections, scattered throughout the country in state, academic and ecclesiastical institutions. Steven Miller, acting Head Librarian of Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales, shares his experience of using a wide range of Italian libraries and archives over the last ten years.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , 2010 , pp. 35 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 2010

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References

1. The Directorate is further divided into four executive offices (General Affairs, Personnel and Budget; State and non-State bibliographical heritage; Cultural Institutes; Copyright and Supervision of the Italian Society for Authors and Publishers) and five special institutes (Central Institute for the Union Catalogue of Italian Libraries; Central Institute for Sound and Audiovisual Heritage; Central National Library of Rome; Central National Library of Florence; Centre for Books and Reading).Google Scholar
2. Italy’s two central national libraries are small by world standards. The British Library has over 16 million books and the Library of Congress over 29 million. A Unesco report on world culture, which ranked countries on the number of books in public libraries per thousand inhabitants, scored Italy below Hungary, Belgium, Holland, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Spain. (Sassoon, Donald, The culture of the Europeans: from 1800 to the present (London: HarperPress, 2006), 1290-91)). These quantitative surveys, however, can be deceptive. A cheap thriller is given the same weight as a rare edition from the 16th century.Google Scholar
3. Then the Roman library of the Augustinian friars – the Angelica – in October 1614.Google Scholar
4. OPAC SBN [Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale], http://www.sbn.it/.Google Scholar
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8. Biblioteca Digitale Italiana, http://www.bibliotecadigitaleitaliana.it/genera.jsp.Google Scholar
9. Full details are available at ‘Rules for Scholars,’ Vatican Secret Archives, http://asv.vatican.va/en/fond/amm.htm.Google Scholar