Although the patrimonialisation issues present new challenges, the diachronic approach to this problem does not yet seem to have completed its task. Looking back at the events during European nation-building, peripheral case studies can still emerge and display new declinations in the invention of national heritage. In Italy, one of the leading figures of that period was Giuseppe Mazzatinti (1855-1906), a rigorous librarian and philologist[1]. Unaware of the extraordinary impact his work would have had on the formation of national documentary heritage, he set up the first systematic inventorying campaign of manuscripts kept in public and private libraries. The Inventari dei manoscritti delle biblioteche d’Italia were conceived in crucial years for the recognition of the heritage in the newly unified Nation, gathered through an articulated process of secularisation and redistribution, which it was then essential to be completed by a cataloguing action[2].
His enterprise had been deeply inspired by earlier patrimonialisation initiatives carried out in France, by the Académie des Inscriptions and later by the École des Chartes[3]. The proceedings of the Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques had culminated in the publication of the Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques des départements (1849), then retrieved by Ulysse Robert, who compiled the Inventaire sommaire des manuscrits des bibliothèques de France dont les catalogues n’ont pas été imprimés (1879). Furthermore, between 1882 and 1887, Mazzatinti himself compiled a catalogue of Italian manuscripts preserved in French libraries[4]. Aided by these transnational models and experiences, he edited the Inventari series from 1890 onwards. The books would have substantially fostered the identification of a vast collection of documents scattered throughout Italy. Among these, the artists’ letters, extensively described, gained one of the first acknowledgements as a documentary genre: only after being identified as material entities admissible to preservation in archives, museums, and public libraries have they, in turn, become accessible and indispensable sources for the writing of local and national art history.
The Inventari are now even more able to support the rediscovery of forgotten groups of artists’ letters, valuable for the in-depth study of the contexts of production and circulation of art in the modern and early-modern ages. Their examination makes it possible to trace the national and international geography of artistic exchanges involving Italian authors, collectors and scholars. This evidence is supported by an unpublished digital database of all occurrences of artistic letters excerpt from the 116 volumes of the Inventari, showing the identity of authors and correspondents, the occupation of the writers, the date and place of provenance and the criteria of patrimonialisation. The chances for further insight are exceptionally broad, involving art history but also the history of heritage.
[1] The bibliography on Mazzatinti is still entirely available only in Italian. See at least Squadroni (2006), Castelli, Menestò and Pellegrini (1991).
[2] Mazzatinti et al. (1890-2013).
[3] Moore (2008), pp. 40 e ff. and Foucaud (1997), p. 155. Among the documentary sources, see the decree of François Guizot, Lettre circulaire n. 14/1841.
[4] Mazzatinti (1886-1888), Squadroni (2006), p. 18.
Patrizia CASTELLI, Enrico MENESTÒ & Giancarlo PELLEGRINI, eds., (1991). Giuseppe Mazzatinti (1855-1906): Tra filologia e storia, Spoleto, Centro italiano di Studi sull’alto medioevo.
Jean-François FOUCAUD (1997). Les bibliothèques et leur patrimoine, in Oddos, ed., Le Patrimoine: Histoire, pratiques et perspectives, Paris, Éditions du Cercle de la librairie, pp. 143-159.
Maria Pia DONATO & Giovanna CAPITELLI, ed., (2017-2022). Lettres d’artistes. Pour une nouvelle histoire transnationale de l’art (XVIIIe-XIXe siècles), projet de recherche, École française de Rome [https://www.efrome.it/lettresart].
Guillaume LIBRI et al., eds., (1849-1993). Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques des départements, Paris, Imprimerie Nationale.
Giuseppe MAZZATINTI et al., eds., (1890-2013). Inventari dei manoscritti delle biblioteche d’Italia, 116 voll., Florence, Olschki.
Giuseppe MAZZATINTI, ed., (1886-1888). Inventari dei manoscritti italiani delle biblioteche di Francia, 3 vol., Indici e Cataloghi – vol. V, Rome, presso i principali librai.
Lara Jennifer MOORE (2008). Restoring Order: The École des Chartes and the Development of Libraries and Archives in France (1820-1870), Duluth, Litwin Books.
Pierre NORA, ed., (1984-1992). Les Lieux de mémoire, 3 vol., Paris, Gallimard.
Ulysse ROBERT, ed., (1879-1886). Inventaire sommaire des manuscrits des bibliothèques de France dont les catalogues n’ont pas été imprimés, Paris, Arsenal.
Mario SQUADRONI, ed., (2006). In memoria di Giuseppe Mazzatinti: Studi, immagini, repertori, Soprintendenza Archivistica per l’Umbria.
Annalisa Laganà is an Adjunct Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History at the Università della Calabria (Italy). In December 2021, she gained a PhD in Art History at the Università della Calabria and the École normale supérieure of Paris, with a thesis entitled Les lettres d’artiste. Histoire d’un patrimoine dans l’Italie du XIXe siècle. Her research focuses on the formation of public cultural heritage in modern and contemporary transnational history, the interconnection between archives and modern and contemporary art experiences, and the history of art historiography.
From 1890 onwards, Giuseppe Mazzatinti set up the first systematic cataloguing campaign of manuscripts kept in Italian libraries, following some significant 19th-century French instances. The Inventari dei manoscritti delle biblioteche d’Italia, which is the concrete outcome of that enterprise, can thoroughly describe the consistency and geographical distribution of the peculiar genre of artists’ letters. Partly owing to Mazzatinti’s initiative, they gained value as a material heritage to be subjected to conservation policies and as a documentary source for Art History. It is possible to deepen the transnational history of art and heritage through these sources, recorded in an unpublished database.