English page with the ongoing event
The Culture of Giving
300 years of books for the Turin National University Library
Turin, National University Library
20 December 2023 – 22 March 2024
To conclude the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of its foundation, the Turin National University Library presents the exhibition La Cultura del Dono. 300 years of books for the National University Library of Turin, dedicated to the theme of gift in the cultural sphere, the result of three years of work on a number of book collections held at the Library.
In August 2020, the Library decided to valorise a corpus of books kept in its storerooms. Thus, some 17,000 volumes and 11,000 pamphlets were recovered, 556 linear metres of works from all over the world, most of them ancient and of significant cultural interest. The core of this patrimony is made up of the gifts that arrived after the great fire of 1904 at the Library’s old premises in Via Po, which triggered an immediate solidarity contest.
Between August and December 2020, unpublished documentation from the library’s historical archive was also found: the arrival of the gifts, their consistency and the correspondence exchanged with the donors were reconstructed, the first fundamental trace of a physical arrangement of the volumes.
This gave rise to the idea of an integrated project which, as part of a conservation, protection and valorisation plan, led to the complete reconnaissance of the assets through the reorganisation, inventorying and cataloguing of the volumes and the historical archive. Finally, a 3D portal was created where it is possible to browse through some of the books virtually.
The exhibition is divided into a twofold narrative level: a systematic one, which deals with the difficult path of the acquisition of the material, explained through three guiding characters, a chronological line and accompanying texts, and a thematic one, in which the richness and variety of the gifts are narrated by the volumes themselves, physically organised in fifteen narrative strands. The themes include: Gifts from the 16th century, A Fragile Elegance, A Pamphlet for Every Occasion, Books that Heal and Bound for Me. Vittorio Amedeo II, the king who founded the library, Erminia Caudana, the restorer who led the restoration workshop set up after the fire of 1904 for over 50 years, and Stelio Bassi, the director who moved the library from its premises in Via Po to its current location in Piazza Carlo Alberto, are the mentors who accompany visitors to discover the over eighty volumes featured in the exhibition.
The inauguration of the exhibition will take place on Wednesday 20 December at 6 p.m. in the Auditorium of the Biblioteca Nazionale (piazza Carlo Alberto 5) with institutional greetings, a presentation of the exhibition project and a visit to the exhibition with the curators.
The exhibition will be open until 22 March 2024 at the Juvarra Exhibition Hall, the adjoining atrium and the Historical Room of the National Library, Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free admission.
Info:
University National Library of Turin – Communication and Events Office
bu-to.eventi@cultura.gov.it
