italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies
Dear Colleagues,
This is a late answer to Michelle Rioux's query. Although what Deanna Shemek has been envisaging is most interesting, I wonder whether Isabella Zanni Rosiello's books are what Michelle had been looking for. Here are the details:
a) Andare in archivio, Bologna, Il Mulino 1996
b) Archivi e memoria storica, Bologna, Il Mulino 1987
c) Gli archivi nella società contemporanea, Bologna, Il Mulino 2009
d) Gli archivi tra passato e presente, Bologna, Il Mulino 2005
e) Ricerche in fondi moderni: orientamenti metodologici, Bologna, Arti Grafiche Tamari 1966
Best wishes,
Giovanni Iamartino
Prof. Giovanni Iamartino
Dipartimento di Scienze del Linguaggio
e Letterature Straniere Comparate
Università degli Studi di Milano
piazza S. Alessandro 1
20123 Milano
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2011 6:28 PM
Subject: Re: [I-S] working in Italian archives
italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies Dear Colleagues,
It looks as though we have a small groundswell of interest in creating some sort of a resource for archival research beginners. Thanks to all who have offered constructive help to the original inquirer, Michelle Rioux, including Tatiana Crivelli whose reply stands below. Thanks to Michelle Rioux for taking seriously the potential of this Listserve. We have a lot of expertise among us.
At this very moment, deadlines pending on several sides, I am not in a position to design a proper tool in response to this need. I would like to think about it and to consider (and I invite others to consider) what would be the most productive setting in which to design a usable object in the near future. Offhand, a couple of options come to mind, based on the many good responses we have seen on the list.
One would be a purely electronic resource, an open site where we could place a module of 10-15 essential questions that scholars could be invited to answer for specific archives. There could be a bulletin board space below where users could add information or queries. These pages could be preceded by a general introduction authored by several of us in collaboration. Another option would be a book with general chapters on the subject at hand, supplemented by an online resource that could be kept up to date. In order to make either of these resources high quality, the ideal scenario would bring together a team of us in one place to discuss the shape of it and to write, together, the principal and guiding pages, testing them out on users. For this, we should apply for funding, for example from the NEH or the University of California Humanities Research Institute at UC Irvine, which regularly funds seminars for group projects with specific projected outcomes. And we would need someone to monitor the electronic part for accuracy, editing, quality control long-term: a Webmaster, I guess.
Ini the next few weeks, I will be considering whether I have time and can find the funding to propose and organize such an initiative in the next year or so. If I do, you will hear from me again with an announcement or invitation. If others wish to take up the task instead (or had already planned to do so), I hope they will communicate with the Listserve so that we don't squander our efforts on redundant or competing projects. If don't plan to do this but you know of a funding source that would serve our purposes, please convey this as well. For now, I will be archiving (so to speak) all the replies we have shared on the topic.
Best wishes to all.
Deanna Shemek
U California, Santa Cruz
On May 16, 2011, at 7:45 AM, Tatiana Crivelli Speciale wrote:
italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies
Dear all,
at the university of Zurich you can find an online training program which is called 'Ad Fontes', a very helpful introductory program on archives in general, with possibility of training specific subjects. To use it, just log in and create your account (you don't need to understand the instructions in german in detail, just try with some intuitive thinking...). It provides a very helpful starting point for archives research in general:
Cordiali saluti
Tatiana Crivelli
*************************
Prof. Dr. Tatiana Crivelli
Romanisches Seminar
Universität Zürich
Zürichbergstrasse 8
CH - 8032 Zürich
Tel. +41 44 634 36 17
REDUCE - Print only when necessary. REUSE - Turn unneeded print-outs into scrap paper. RECYCLE - Recycle when you're through.
On 16-mag-2011, at 13.27, Philip Cooke wrote:
italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studiesHere’s one I prepared earlier for a student going to the BNCF. Brief, but it should do. Make sure you get the biggest stamp you can find. If they do a wax seal at Edinburgh tanto meglio
Phil
Egregia direttrice,
Con la presente confermo che XXXXXXXX è una dottoranda presso il dipartimento d’italianistica di questa università. Per le sue ricerche avrebbe bisogno di consultare giornali, libri e riviste italiani dei primi anni del novecento. La prego di volere fornirle, nei limiti del possibile, l’assistenza di cui avrebbe bisogno nel corso delle sue ricerche presso la XXXX
I completely agree with Deanna Shemek on the benefits of an online guide for users of Italian archives.
On this subject, can anyone offer advice to the list on the best wording of a formal letter of introduction in Italian for postgraduate students visiting archives for the first time?
Best wishes,
Sarah Cockram
Dr Sarah D P Cockram
School of History, Classics and Archaeology
University of Edinburgh
Room 1.22, Doorway 4
Teviot Place
EH8 9AG, UK
[log in to unmask]
Date: Fri, 13 May 2011 16:01:48 +0200
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [I-S] working in Italian archives
To: [log in to unmask]
italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies I suppose I cheated. I bought Robert Davidsohn's many volumed Storia di Firenze, shipping them back and forth across the Atlantic, and found every reference to archival documents in the ASF he made was true and one could re-find them. Dante scholars ought to use him as he is magnificent on medieval Florence. It is a thrill to hold documents that speak of being signed to the ringing of the bells of Santa Reparata or San Lorenzo with all the citizenry gathered around, speech acts. In war time on battlefields, instead of peace treaties, people would be summoned to the beating of drums. I fell in love with the notarial signs. And also how international they are. Dovetailing with documents in the Genova archives (badly damaged by a British bomb you have to walk past still sticking out of a wall), and where the document in question I sought had a great wine stain spilled across it. Dealing with documents in Montpellier, in Barcelona, in Westminster Abbey, learning of others, now lost, in Naples and Constantinople, of this network of Guelf Italians abroad in exile, arranging loans to support the Popes' wars at the same they waged paper wars, writing political tenzoni, collecting Provencal lyrics. I found archives gave a full-blooded dimension to literary texts that no one taught me to look for with library work. And I often found literary texts lost in archives where one least expected them. It doesn't seem to matter what period or figure one works with, the skills being transferable between centuries and between states.
Julia Bolton Holloway, Florence
italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies
Good morning from Montreal.
I am following with particular interest this discussion., As a political scientist who often has had to do archival research, I would love to know more about the practical experience of others far more knowledgeable than I am.
It took more than a week for me to get a sense of how to read the archival catalogues and what to look for in the State Archives in Palermo (with archives in different locations), Caltanissetta, Potenza and Rome. It was much easier to do research in the Pretura Archives and Local Library archives as these had better catalogues and were more easily accessible.
I learned also from the way others had used the same sources, just by seeing how they cited them in their published work. I decided to begin there and not before long I developed a good sense of how and what to look for in other fondi and sources.
One practical issue immediately came up: how to take notes. In my first experience I used 5by8 note cards, and copied everything by hand, including the source at the top of each card. Nowadays, I guess it is much easier with a lap top…
A story is told among archivists in Palermo that when Denis Mack Smith started his two-volume project on Sicily, he visited l’Archivio di Stato in Palermo. Took a good look around and never visited it again. I guess he did not need to spend time in archives to write a history of Sicily. He had accumulated enough from his previous work.
Filippo.Sabetti
Political Science
McGill University
From: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Emily Michelson
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2011 8:06 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [I-S] working in Italian archives
When I was working on my doctorate, students returning from the archives were asked to write a report on their experience as a guide for other students. The results were compiled into a big book that sat in the secretary's office. The initiative was short-lived and erratic, but very useful for what it was. So I'd like to second Deanna Shemek's suggestion of a collaborative practical guide for Italian archives, and add that perhaps it can include a wiki section on specific archives and libraries; it could thus be easily updated with rapidly-changing information such as renovations, policy changes, and special closures. I will always remember being excoriated for requesting a book from a room that was under renovation, even though the sign explaining the prohibition had been moved out of sight.
Dr. Emily Michelson
Reformation Studies Institute
Lecturer in History
University of St Andrews
71 South St.
St Andrews, KY16 9QW Scotland
+44 (0) 1334 462881 phone
+44 (0) 1334 463334 fax
[log in to unmask] italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies
Dear Colleagues,
The responses in this string have been most interesting. It does seem, however, that Michelle Rioux's question has evidenced a need for a pragmatic guide for users of Italian archives. Something more than an "Italian Archives for Dummies" but less than a three-tome index of the archives of Italy. It's rather sad that for such an important dimension of research there is no basic "How To" book. How to get started, what to expect in terms of restrictions, how to begin parsing an archive, typical holdings of state archives in Italy, how to organize your time in an archive, what range of assistance may be available from archival personnel , contrasts to expect between large and small archives, standard archival etiquette, tricks of the trade, etc. This would be a great collaborative project for archival researchers to produce, perhaps online.
On May 11, 2011, at 11:46 AM, Julia Bolton Holloway wrote:
italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies For access to Italian libraries and archives you need a letter from your Chancellor or similar officer of your university and your passport. You'll find Chancellors rather like writing such documents and affixing gold seals, etc.. Make photocopies of it, keeping the original, to give to the libraries and archives. Libraries and archives tend to open at eight in the morning, and then go moribund in the afternoons. You can find their hours on the web and thus plot your movements around these.Be ready to divorce yourself from everything except pencils, a pen, paper, computer, the other objects being placed in a locker. There have been deep funding cuts so staff will be over-extended with work. But libraries and archives in Italy are magnificent. What period are you working in? Adriano Capelli, Hoepli, is a great help with paleography, etc.
italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies
Hello--
I am wondering: could anyone recommend a good book or other resource--in either English or Italian--that serves as an introduction to working in Italian libraries and archives? Does something like this exist? (I am a graduate student whose experience in this is limited so far.) I realise that one gets more savvy with experience, and that much learning like this has to take a trial-and-error format. However, a general overview would be useful, in addition to what can be gleaned from individual institutions' websites. I am particularly interested in Venice--the Archivio di Stato and the Correr library.
Tante grazie,
Michelle
--
Julia Bolton Holloway, Mediatheca 'Fioretta Mazzei', 'English' Cemetery, Piazzale Donatello, 38,
I-50132 Firenze, Italy
http://www.umilta.net http://www.florin.ms http://www.ringofgold.eu
http://piazzaledonatello.blogspot.com
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Professor, Italian and Comparative Literature
Mail: Cowell College Academic Service Center
University of California, Santa Cruz
1156 High Street, Santa Cruz CA 95064
Tel. 831/459-2609 (messages)
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--
Julia Bolton Holloway, Mediatheca 'Fioretta Mazzei', 'English' Cemetery, Piazzale Donatello, 38,
I-50132 Firenze, Italy
http://www.umilta.net http://www.florin.ms http://www.ringofgold.eu
http://piazzaledonatello.blogspot.com
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Deanna Shemek
Professor, Italian and Comparative Literature
Mail: Cowell College Academic Service Center
University of California, Santa Cruz
1156 High Street, Santa Cruz CA 95064
Tel. 831/459-2609 (messages)
Fax 831/459-4880
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