In the attempt to trace back the genealogy of women’s history and of Feminism in Italy and in Europe, Biblioteca Italiana delle Donne has consolidated over the years -by means of donations and acquisitions of several library collections- an essential heritage of over 4000 works published before 1970, written for and by women: our Historical Collection aims to reconnect the present to the past in terms of themes and textual connections.
From the chronological point of view, the books dating back to the Nineteenth and early Twentieth century represent the most significant part of the Historical Collection, but it also gathers books published in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth centuries.
The most ancient and precious text of our collection is La nobiltà delle donne (The Nobility of Women) by Lodovico Domenichi, a printed book published in Venice in 1549 (the digitized version is available by clicking here on the preview).
As for the text categories within the Historical Collection, a section of considerable importance is the Reference Section, which contains about 350 biographical and autobiographical texts relating to Italian and foreign women, known and less known, who distinguished themselves in their workfields: painters, musicians, saints, queens, benefactors, actresses, poets, writers, scientists, politicians, etc. This section is also enriched by a collection of about 150 published epistolaries written by prominent female and male figures of European culture.
Another significant section is the Italian Women Writers’ Section, which includes the work of prominent authors as Sibilla Aleramo, Annie Vivanti, Ada Negri, Grazia Deledda, Cristina Campo, Neera, Anna Banti, Elsa Morante and Natalia Ginzburg, and of other less known writers, such as Clotilde Marghieri, Carola Prosperi, Camilla Del Soldato. This section gathers the fundamental core of texts of a history yet to be written: the history of Italian Women’s Literature.
The Historical Collection also includes a relevant section of books written by important women from different countries and historical periods: Madame de Staël, Lady Montague, Mary Shelley, Isadora Duncan, Christina Rossetti and many others.
In our Historical Collection it is therefore possible to find sources of invaluable importance for the reconstruction of the history of women’s movements and the rise of Feminism throughout the world: very important, for example, are the texts dating back to the Suffragettes, the first emancipation movements of the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries in Italy and abroad, like the political works by Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst, Millicent Fawcett, Anna Maria Mozzoni, Anna Kuliscioff and others.
In the Historical Collection other several different aspects of the social history, customs and feminine culture in Italy and in Europe are also documented and revealed.
A section is dedicated to the History of Italian and European Women’s Education, including educational books, textbooks and coursebooks, but also behavior manuals, religious guides and narrative for young and very young women.
The Historical Collection does not include only books, but much more: for example, a collection of photographs -of which many are autographed- by Italian artists between the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries: Eleonora Duse, Wanda Capodaglio, Emma Gramatica, Dina Galli, but also Maria Callas, Lina Cavalieri, Toti Dal Monte, etc.
Posters, flyers, calendars, and different kinds of items are available, including the Futurist Woman’s Manifesto, the propaganda poster To the women of Fiume by G. D’Annunzio, and an Appeal of the Italian Women at the time of the Invasion (both dating back to the First World War), the Subscription by Florentine Women to Provide Weapons to the Civic Guard, a General Regulation for the Catholic Girls at the Regal Retreat of the Mantellate from the Eighteenth century, and some barber calendars from the 1920s.
A handwritten thesis dissertation is also accessible in the collection.