Library

Vittorio Presbitero The only information concerning him is that noted by himself on the volumes of the Collection: he was originally from Vogogna and was a lawyer.
Among the Library's heritage, 123 works belonging to the lawyer Vittorio Presbitero have been identified so far.
From the first surveys made among the material of the Periodicals Collection, it can be assumed that many of the most important newspapers of the nineteenth century can be traced back to Presbitero.

Arrival and history of the collection

No documents have yet been found that indicate the date and manner of arrival of the Presbitero Collection, among the least known and studied of the Museum. The presence on some of the works of inventory numbers from the first series, canceled due to the disappearance of the reference register, may suggest that their arrival in the Library occurred between the late 1930s and the mid-1940s. The works attributed to the Presbitero Collection bear the owner's signature on the frontispiece.
Most of the works belonging to Vittorio Presbitero identified so far deal with the history of the Italian Risorgimento and are very often contemporary to the events narrated. Italian and French philosophical and political works of the eighteenth century.

Vittorio Parmentola (Oulx 1903 – Turin 1985) a republican, was among the founders of the Italian Mazzini Association and director of the periodical Il pensiero mazziniano. He was the author of historical essays on Mazzinianism. Between 1973 and 1981 he was Director of the Museum and dedicated himself in particular to the Library and historical Archives.
The following have so far been traced back to Parmentola in the Periodicals Collection:
Nouvelles de divers endroits, Bern (RI.286) (RI.C.29, INV. PER.154)
L’indicatore livornese: giornale di scienze, lettere ed arti, Livorno, 1829-1830, contains a handwritten index of the articles by the director Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi).

Arrival and history of the collection

The donation of the complete collection of L’indicatore livornese dates back to 1973

Topics of the collection

History of Mazzinianism and the Italian Risorgimento

Collection Size

To date, 668 works donated by Vittorio Parmentola have been identified.

Terenzio Grandi (Valenza Po 1884 – Turin 1981), a Mazzinian since adolescence, had multiple interests, particularly in politics, understood ethically as a lay apostolate of duty. He was a publicist and historian, publisher, and correspondent for newspapers and periodicals. A member of the Republican Party from the beginning of the twentieth century, he founded and directed Il pensiero mazziniano. Together with his wife Ernesta, he was among the founders of the Italian Mazzinian Association, of which he was a tireless promoter.
In 1992, the Museum promoted the publication of Terenzio Grandi's correspondence with Arcangelo Ghisleri, entitled L’intransigente e l’idealista (1904-1938) [The Intransigent and the Idealist (1904-1938)].
In 1980, Lorenza Grandi donated to the Museum the Archive and a substantial part of her father's library (approximately 500 works by Terenzio Grandi are preserved at the Giuseppe Grosso Library of the Province of Turin).
The Terenzio Grandi book collection contains the complete works of Giuseppe Mazzini, a large part of the historiography on Mazzinianism from the first half of the last century, volumes on the Italian Risorgimento, on the history of the origin of the Republican Party and the Republicans of the nineteenth century, in particular the actor Giulio Modena, whose archive Grandi collected.
In the collection of pamphlets, the documents on the history of the art of printing and the collections (defined by Grandi as "Essays") of loose issues of Italian and foreign newspapers and magazines, subdivided by genre (for example, the clandestine press of the Resistance), are of particular importance.

Renzo Rizzi began his activity as a bookseller in 1948 in the antiquarian section of the publisher Ulrico Hoepli. In 1954 he opened the Renzo Rizzi Antiquarian Bookstore in Via Manzoni 17 in Milan.

Arrival and history of the collection

On June 24, 1957, the bookseller Renzo Rizzi wrote to the director of the Museum, Professor Luigi Bulferetti, to inform him that one of his clients, residing 50 kilometers from Milan, would like to sell the Risorgimento Library formed by her husband, who had recently passed away. The collection consists of 1,580 works of the Risorgimento in 2,340 volumes, approximately 500 works of the Great War in 755 volumes, 7,539 loose pamphlets from the Risorgimento period, 1,465 loose pamphlets from the Great War, 843 rare pamphlets bound in 49 volumes. After a series of negotiations and the necessary checks to exclude works already owned by the Library, the Museum acquired 1,450 monographic works and 7,382 pamphlets, thus renouncing the material on the Great War.
The acquisition of the Rizzi Collection was finalized on December 16, 1957.
The most represented topics are the history of the French Revolution, the Italian Revolutionary Triennium, and the Napoleonic period with particular regard to Italian affairs. The two miscellanies RIZZI.535 and RIZZI.679 (the latter defined as the Republican Catechism), which collect, among others, pamphlets and flyers published in Venice and the Ionian Islands between 1797 and 1799, some of which are truly unique pieces, are particularly important. History of the Italian Risorgimento with works of a general nature and others on specific battles and political events, biographies and autobiographies, history of other European nations contemporary to the Italian Risorgimento.

Narciso Nada (Turin 1925 – 2004) was a professor of History of the Risorgimento at the University of Turin from 1950 to 1990, with the exception of a period between 1962 and 1969 when he held the same position in Genoa.
He collaborated with various Piedmontese cultural institutions, including the Museum, where he directed the Association of Friends of the Museum, and of which he was, for several years, a member of the Board of Directors. Professor Nada's work, thanks also to his experience in the field of library science, is a constant in the history of the Library: his collaboration was in fact fundamental for the growth and reorganization of the collections, especially between the 1960s and 1980s of the last century. Professor Nada's is an example of the close collaboration, before him since the permanent opening of the Museum in 1908, and after him until today, of the provision to the Museum, the Library and the historical Archives of skills by the holders of the chair of History of the Risorgimento of the University of Turin.

Topics of the collection

Italian Risorgimento and history of 19th-century Europe with many works belonging to Italian and foreign Risorgimento historiography published in the second half of the 20th century. The collection of pamphlets is also very important due to the rarity of some documents.

La Gazzetta del Popolo, a political daily founded in Turin on June 16, 1848, by Giovan Battista Botero, Felice Govean and Alessandro Borella, was the most widespread and popular Piedmontese newspaper until the beginning of the twentieth century. The newspaper was closed on December 31, 1983.
In 1932, the "Historical Archive of the Gazzetta del Popolo" was established at the headquarters in Corso Valdocco with the aim of collecting documents and memorabilia testifying to the history of the newspaper (it is not, therefore, the archive of the editorial staff) and the men who worked for it starting from 1848. In 1940, the year in which the Archive took the name of "Historical Exhibition of the Gazzetta del Popolo", the collection occupied as many as 14 rooms of the newspaper's building.

Arrival and history of the collection

The donation by SET (Società editrice torinese - Turin publishing company) dates back to 1953. The memorabilia and documents of the "Historical Exhibition of the Gazzetta del Popolo" were physically delivered to the Museum on March 15, 1956, enclosed in 48 crates, weighing one quintal each, accompanied by a general and summary list of contents.
These were archival documents, books, pamphlets, periodicals, photographs, posters, proclamations, edicts and memorabilia which, in the decades following their arrival, were divided between the Library, the Historical Archives and the Iconographic Cabinet of the Museum.
The majority of the books and periodicals were cataloged starting in the 1970s; the pamphlets and books with more markedly fascist content were instead cataloged in the early 2000s.

Topics of the collection

History of Italy from the Risorgimento period to the fall of Fascism; works of politics, doctrine and fascist propaganda; classics of Italian and French literature and philosophy; collections of laws; encyclopedias and dictionaries.

Collection Size

To date, 3,157 volumes and pamphlets from the "Historical Exhibition of the Gazzetta del Popolo" have been identified.

Irene di Robilant (ca. 1895-19..?) essayist, was the author of Vita americana (Stati Uniti del Nord-America) [American Life (United States of North America)], preface by Giuseppe Prezzolini, Turin, Bocca, 1929, promoter of the Italy-America Society of New York and friend of Benedetto Croce.

Arrival and history of the collection

The di Robilant Collection consists of several donations received by the Museum starting in 1948; in 1952 Countess Irene di Robilant donated to the Museum the books and memorabilia belonging to her father, General Mario Nicolis di Robilant.
The Countess also stipulated in her will that all the works of a historical nature kept in the family library in the castle of Malgrà, should be donated to the Museum Library. Marilù di Robilant, executor of her sister Irene's will, sent about 500 volumes to the Museum in 1972. Among these, also works belonging to her great-grandfather General Enrico Morozzo della Rocca.

Topics of the collection

Opere, anche in edizioni francesi ed inglesi, sulla storia d’Italia e di Casa Savoia dell’Ottocento. Molti volumi hanno rilegature di pregio con i tasselli delle biblioteche familiari di provenienza (Morozzo della Rocca e Nicolis di Robilant).
La presenza dell’etichetta con segnatura sul contropiatto posteriore permette l’attribuzione alla biblioteca familiare di Robilant-Morozzo della Rocca di tre opere appartenute a Carlo Alberto di Savoia-Carignano, quai sicuramente le uniche della Biblioteca riconducibili alla famiglia reale:
L. A. Muratori, Annali d’Italia dal principio dell’era volgare sino all’anno 1749, Milano, dalla Società tipografica de’ classici italiani contrada del Cappuccio, 1818-1821 (con legatura in marocchino verde del sec. 19. e piatti decorati a secco con riquadri in oro che hanno sui piatti il monogramma di Carlo Alberto impresso in oro)
H. G. Mirabeau, De la monarchie prussienne, sous Frédéric le Grand, A Londres, Louis Laurent Edme Lejay, 1788 (con legatura in cuoio del sec. 19. e labbri decorati in oro hanno sul contropiatto anteriore l’ex libris di Carlo Alberto)
E. Condillac, Cours d’étude pour l’instruction du Prince de Parme, aujourd’hui S.A.R. l’infant d. Ferdinand duc de Parme, Plaisance, Guastalle etc., Parma, 1782 (con legatura in cuoio del sec. 18., sui piatti, dorso e labbri fregi in oro, sul dorso tasselli con tit. e partizione in oro hanno sul contropiatto anteriore l’ex libris di Carlo Alberto)

Collection Size

To date, 229 works donated by Irene di Robilant have been identified.

Cesare Alfieri di Sostegno (Torino 1799 – Firenze 1869) intraprese dapprima la carriera diplomatica che interruppe nel 1827 divenendo primo scudiere di Carlo Alberto. Dopo alcuni anni dediti a studi di scienze sociali, ebbe dal Re diversi incarichi, fra cui quello di Magistrato della riforma degli studi nel 1844. Grazie a questo incarico poté riorganizzare il sistema d’istruzione del Regno sardo, mettendo in pratica le sue conoscenze dei progressi compiuti in Europa nel campo dell’insegnamento. Nel 1847 fu nominato Ministro della Pubblica Istruzione, il primo del Regno di Sardegna.
Fu autorevole consigliere di re Carlo Alberto e fervido sostenitore della concessione dello Statuto di cui contribuì a stendere il disegno. Dopo l’armistizio Salasco fu, per due mesi, Presidente del Consiglio. Senatore, fu Presidente del Senato dal 1855 al 1860.
Il Fondo Cesare Alfieri è composto di 1.284 monografie.

Arrival and history of the collection

The Cesare Alfieri Collection was donated to the Museum by the Marchioness Margherita Visconti Venosta, depositary of the Risorgimento legacy of Lascaris Cavour Alfieri, in 1972, at the urging of Professor Narciso Nada.
Before the donation to the Museum, the volumes of the Cesare Alfieri Collection were kept at the castle of San Martino Alfieri. The works constitute only a part of what was the Alfieri Library towards the end of the nineteenth century: a part of the volumes owned was in fact destined for the Cesare Alfieri Institute of Political Science in Florence and another transferred later to the Alfieri Foundation of Asti.
Professor Narciso Nada, founder of the Association of Friends of the National Museum of the Italian Risorgimento, which he presided over in those years, and subsequently advisor to the Museum itself, was the curator and reorganizer of the Alfieri Library at the Museum.

Topics of the collection

Works relating to the men and events of the Italian Risorgimento; of the main French politicians, historians and writers of the time, as proof of the profound influence that French culture exerted on the subalpine ruling class of the time; writings of religious literature, with numerous works on the history of Christianity and the Catholic Church; works of a pedagogical nature, relating to the problems of education and assistance for children for whom Cesare Alfieri had a keen interest.
The collection of works by the major exponents of European liberalism of the nineteenth century is particularly extensive: Guizot, Cousin, Tocqueville, Michelet, Madame de Stael, Sismondi and others.
The greatest merit of the Alfieri Collection is certainly its European character which documents the links that existed in that period between Risorgimento Italy and Europe, the history of liberal and national movements and the revival of the ideals of freedom in the history of an important part of the continent during the nineteenth century.

Collection Size

1,284 monographs

Camillo Grandini (Milan 1909-1967) was a partisan of Justice and Freedom. In 1944 he was deported to Mauthausen with some great Milanese intellectuals including the architect Lodovico Barbiano di Belgiojoso, since then his close friend.
Grandini was a great enthusiast of history and, in particular, of the French Revolution and the Italian Risorgimento. He built up a personal library of 4,500-5,000 books, many of them with precious bindings.

Tommaso Villa (Canale d’Alba 1832 – Turin 1915) was a politician and lawyer. Deputy (1865-1909) and senator (from 1909), he was Minister of the Interior (1879) and Minister of Grace and Justice and Worship (1879-1881).
Upon the death of Vittorio Emanuele II, he was among the most important supporters of the creation of a museum of national history, from which, thanks to his influence and tireless work, the National Museum of the Italian Risorgimento was born.
He was President of the Executive Committee for the Italian General Exhibition of Turin in 1884 and President of the Italian Commission for the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1900.
The Museum's historical archives preserve the papers of the Tommaso Villa Collection, purchased in 1993.
The Collection consists of the volumes of Parliamentary Acts from 1848 to 1884 (lacking the 6 volumes of Draft Laws, Reports, Documents and the 12 volumes of Discussions of the Chamber of Deputies of the VIII Legislature, Session II 1863-1865) and the Parliamentary Speeches of Count Camillo di Cavour collected and published by order of the Chamber of Deputies, Turin, for the Botta heirs, 1863-1872, volumes 1-11.

Alessandro Galante Garrone (Vercelli 1909 – Turin 2003), a protagonist of the Resistance fought in the ranks of the Action Party, was a magistrate for thirty years, dedicating himself at the same time to historical studies. From 1966 to 1979 he was professor of History of the Risorgimento at the University of Turin.
The AGG Section is composed of 941 monographic works.

Arrival and history of the collection

The Alessandro Garrone Collection was formed during the 1980s following donations made in different years, but it is not his private library, which went to the Piero Gobetti Study Center.

Topics of the collection

History of the Italian Risorgimento; history of European political movements of the 18th-20th centuries.

Collection Size

941 monographic works

Giovanni Marianetti (Pisa 1924 – Turin 2006) was a passionate bibliophile with vast interests and great expertise; he formed “his collections through research done in the ritual pauses granted by an intense managerial activity”.

Arrival and history of the collection

The Risorgimento Collection of Giovanni Marianetti was purchased by the CRT Foundation in 2007 and given on loan for use to the National Museum of the Italian Risorgimento.
The collection, formed over many years of acquisitions and research, consists of works relating to every field of culture and history of the 19th century: works by the major Italian and foreign thinkers and politicians of the 19th century; a notable presence of 19th and 20th century historiography on the Italian Risorgimento; correspondence, memoirs and biographies; local (in particular Piedmontese and Tuscan), scholastic, and children's publishing; travel guides.
For some highly successful and widely circulated works, the presence of the various editions that have followed one another over time is important, as for Massimo d’Azeglio's I miei ricordi.

The Garibaldi Bibliography of the Collection was started by Stefano Canzio (1898-1976) professor, historian, director of the Museum of the Risorgimento of Milan and direct descendant of Giuseppe Garibaldi: his grandfather Stefano (Genoa, 1837-1909) was part of the Thousand and married Teresita, the third daughter of the General and Anita.
The collection was continued and significantly increased by his son Decio Canzio (Milan, 1930-2013), for more than thirty years general manager of Sergio Bonelli editore and screenwriter. It is a specialist library collection of approximately 1,200 monographic works by and about Giuseppe Garibaldi.