Search

This article reconstructs, by means of unpublished and newly discovered archival sources, the path of the Islamic manuscripts of the Cospi Museum from their entry into the collection of Ferdinando Cospi up to the present day, and identifies them, for the first time, in a group of manuscripts currently held in the University Library of Bologna. Although Islamic manuscripts had made their way to Italy since medieval times and numerous examples may be found in Italian libraries today, very few represent the collection of a single individual and, among these, fewer still have survived as a coherent group. The rediscovered collection of Islamic manuscripts of the Cospi Museum therefore represents a rare survival which provides new insights into early modern collecting practices in Italy, as well as new material through which to explore the history of the interaction between the Islamic world and Italy in the early modern period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digitization project Giving a new voice to sources. Communicate humanistic research for all aims to make available to the scientific community the audio archive of the Bruno Kessler Foundation's Library, which preserves the recordings of the conference activities of the two humanistic research centers of the Foundation. The project represents, at least in Italy, one of the first attempts to realize a virtual space devoted to audio archival sources researchable freely online to avoid the deterioration of a cultural heritage of extremely scientific relevance, leading to its conservation and availability. The deterioration of the analogue media of the archival collection makes the digitization a matter of survival which allows a diffusion otherwise unthinkable. The accessibility to the audio archival sources allows for enlarging the number of scholars and students that can benefit from the collection for the research. It also allows general users to approach the cultural contents of the humanities. The paper aims to describe the goals, the phases of realization of the project, the methodological problems due to the critical issues of the material supports, the descriptive analysis of the contents, and the opening of the database. The first part of the essay describes the history of the audio archive of the library. This archive covers an extensive period from 1974 to the new Millennium and is composed of the reels and compact audio cassette. The second part analyses the phases of work of the project, from the preliminary analysis of the support to the conversion and the digital reworking. The last part is dedicated to the method adopted in the compilation of metadata of the files and to the description of the structure of the database, as well as his research functions and the descriptive scheme of each audio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, historians have become increasingly fascinated by the question of what enabled the emergence of a stable model of democracy in post-war Western Europe, characterized by the persistence of pre-war elites and top-down forms of decision-making. This article reveals the importance of the British occupations during and after the Second World War in fostering this model of democracy. It does so by comparing and weaving together British occupation strategies in Germany and Italy between 1943 and 1949. Based on a novel examination of archival sources, it demonstrates that British ruling strategies influenced the form of democracy that emerged in these two states. As such, the article reveals the centrality of 'indirect rule' practices and their multifaceted impact. Building on imperial precedents, the occupations were primarily run through pre-existing local elites who commanded authority and influence amongst the population. The article argues that this choice explains why the British produced, first, functioning occupation regimes and, subsequently, contributed to the emergence of remarkably stable democracies. At the same time, however, this ruling strategy aided the creation of political regimes that were elite-led and that strongly limited popular participation, leaving many democratic aspirations unfulfilled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to explore the engagement between accounting and music in the social and relational construction of accountability. The authors conceive this construction as a dynamic and recursive interplay between the giving of different accounts and the responses that these accounts provoke. The authors investigate the emotional dimension of this interplay, as it is also triggered by music, feeding back into how accountability is constructed and evolves over time. Design/methodology/approach: This study relies upon a historical analysis of archival and secondary sources about the main music concert organized in 1913 by the founder of "Accademia Chigiana", one of the leading music academies in Italy. The concert celebrated the first centenary of the birth of Giuseppe Verdi, a worldwide famous Italian music composer, and icon of Italian national sentiment. Findings: This study shows that music and accounting were profoundly intertwined in the social and relational construction of accountability for the 1913 concert. Accountability evolved through different accounts, also linked to music, and the complex emotional reactions these accounts provoked in the audiences, citizens, media and institutions, leading to always further responses and accounts in the ongoing construction of accountability. Originality/value: This study extends prior literature on the chameleonic nature of accountability, as well as on its relational and emotional dimensions. The study shows that accountability is relationally constructed and evolves over time through the giving of accounts and the emotional reaction they provoke from others, feeding into further responses and accounts of the accountable subject. The authors show how the chameleonic nature of accountability permeates not only the accounts and the relations of accountability but also the subjects giving and demanding the accounts: these subjects change as chameleons through their interactions and emotions, feeding into the dynamic construction of accountability. The authors also show how arts, like music, can participate in the chameleonic nature of accountability and of its subjects, precisely by engaging with their emotional reactions and responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper shows the results of an archive research, developed in parallel with the recent restoration of the Valentino Castle’s chapel in Torino, with the goal of deepening the knowledge of this part of the Savoy’s residence. The study led to identify in Maria Giovanna Battista di Savoia-Nemours the commissioner of the stucco and fresco decorations that ornate the chapel as well as to a better knowledge both on the second Madama Reale and on the palace between the Sixth and Seventeenth centuries. Through the comparison of data emerging from documents with those from style and restoration works, it was possible to formulate a hypothesis on the craftsmen behind the stucco decoration, that can be attributed to Pietro Somasso’s team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses a concept that is part of the nature of archives, and represents a necessary process for the constitution of any fonds. In the Italian archival field, this concept is called sedimentazione, which literally translates as sedimentation. In the international context, the use of this term is uncommon, as sedimentation is not originally an archival term. However, the term is widely used in Italian archival literature and language. This article provides clarifications on the meaning of archival sedimentation and its use in the Italian context. The connotations of spontaneity and/or intentionality of the sedimentation process are analyzed, and a definition of archival sedimentation is proposed. Archives' attributes, such as natural, spontaneous and organic, are put in relation to the sedimentation process, and considerations about their ambiguous meaning are made. Finally, reflections are presented on the present-day connotations that archival sedimentation holds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Republic of Venice was renowned for gathering and preserving from very early on a huge and growing archive. This article analyses the ways in which records were created, stored, and ordered for both immediate and future use. The political system of Venice, at once aristocratic and republican, had an important impact on the production and preservation of large quantities of documents in unbound filze and bound registri. In turn, the volume of this paperwork required the development of strict criteria for the organization of the material. In particular, this article analyses how records were divided at the moment of production, thus enabling a pragmatic combination of chronological and thematic ordering criteria. The latter were reinforced by finding tools arranged by subject matter, in particular indexes inside each volume and more general indexes across several volumes, both known as rubriche. The article suggests that indexing must be seen as a historical process dependent on Venice's political structures and tied to specific moments in the wider history of the Republic, respectively in the fifteenth, early sixteenth, and early seventeenth centuries. Finally, the article points to some unexpected interactions between political secrecy and indexing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the nature of the interrelation between the archive and the historian by considering J. Burckhardt's variety of readings of Florence, Italy during the Renaissance. Nature of the records contained within the archives; Fiction of an objective historical method producing hard history; Distinction between history and myth.