Bibliotheca Italiana in Groningen

by Francesca (Francis) Urciullo

This spring (2024), the Special Collections Department of the University of Groningen Library presents two online exhibitions on the Bibliotheca Italiana. 

The two exhibitions were curated by Francesca (Francis) Urciullo as part of her MA in Writing, Editing and Mediating. She worked as an intern at the Special Collections, supervised by Dr David Veltman, focusing specifically on the collection of fascist periodicals and their wider place in the history of fascism, in particular the magazine Critica Fascista.

Since the 1960s, the University of Groningen Library has hosted a collection of Italian works in its basement, which is loaned by the Groningen committee of the Società Dante Alighieri, a worldwide society for the promotion of Italian language and culture abroad. This collection is known as the Bibliotheca Italiana, which contains approximately 900 books and a substantial collection of magazines and anthologies, particularly from the Italian fascist period. The collection of fascist magazines, bibliographic and critical journals, political writings, and periodicals, can provide valuable insight into how fascist ideology shaped the cultural climate in Italy during the 1920s and 1930s.

La Dante Groningen and the archives of the society’s headquarters in Rome helped to procure additional information for these exhibitions. 

With these two digital exhibitions, you will become acquainted with the Bibliotheca Italiana of the UB, including the wider context surrounding its collection of fascist works that provide an interesting view into a specific period of Italian history and culture.

Click on the links below to enter the exhibitions.