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National Esperanto Library and Archive

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National Esperanto Library and Archive
Biblioteca Nazionale di Esperanto
Map
44°02′15″N 10°08′18″E / 44.03760456853333°N 10.138329695781541°E / 44.03760456853333; 10.138329695781541
LocationMassa, Italy
Established1972
Collection
Size9,049 item (2021), 9,730 item (2022), 9,704 volume Edit this on Wikidata
Other information
Websitehttp://www.archiviodistatomassa.beniculturali.it/index.php?it/186/biblioteca-nazionale-di-esperanto

The Esperanto National Library and Archive is the biggest Esperanto library in Italy; it is located in Massa, in northern Tuscany.

Founded in 1972 as the official library of the Federazione esperantista italiana [it],[1] it is now a public collection, hosted by the State Archive in Massa [it] and part of the REPROBI network of Italian libraries.[2]

History

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The concept of a national library that could host all the literary works in Esperanto was first imagined in the 1950s by professor Mario Dazzini (Pietrasanta, 1910 – Massa, 1985)[3] and his sister, Catina Dazzini.

The first collection began in 1972, when Dazzini received a rare Esperanto book (the first grammar of Esperanto ever published in Italy, written by Daniele Marignoni [it]). The book was donated by the Italian linguist Bruno Migliorini and his brother Elio Migliorini [it], a geographer.[4]

The core of the library consisted not only of books provided by the Migliorinis, but also of works donated by a lawyer Boscarino from Ragusa, Corrado Grazzini [it], Luigi Minnaja, and other Italian Esperantists.[4]

The library was first hosted in the Malaspina Castle, on the hills surrounding Massa, and was then moved to the building of the State Archive in Massa.[4]

In March 1994, the library and its archive were donated to the state and to the archive administration of the Italian Ministry of Culture.[4]

In January 2007, the local Esperanto group in Massa began to catalogue the books and works hosted by the library.[5] The work was helped and financed by the province of Massa-Carrara, together with the regional government of Tuscany and the Massa State Archive.[6] The inauguration of the library's new location in the building of the State Archive was celebrated on 25 October 2008 in a public conference, called "Dall'Esperanto storico al multimediale" ("From historical to multimedial Esperanto"), hosted in the Sala della Resistenza of the Ducal Palace of Massa [it].[7]

Collection

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The library hosts books written in or related to Esperanto; the books mainly deal with linguistics, literature, theology and politics.[6] Overall, the library hosts around 8,000 books.[4] The majority of them were donated by the Dazzini family, and later by other Italian Esperantists.[6]

The collection includes 176 magazines, not yet catalogued, as well as other documents such as travel diaries, correspondence, photographic images and music recordings.[6] About half of the collection is Esperanto translations of works of prose and poetry.

References

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  1. ^ Amedeo Benedetti, L'Esperanto e la Biblioteca Nazionale di Massa, in "Charta", n. 97, May–June 2008, p. 60.
  2. ^ Elenco dei soggetti aderenti alla Rete Provinciale delle Biblioteche di Massa Archived 10 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ^ En memoro de Mario Dazzini, ne L'esperanto, luglio-agosto 1985, p. 3.
  4. ^ a b c d e Amedeo Benedetti, L'Esperanto e la Biblioteca Nazionale di Massa, in "Charta", n. 97, May–June 2008, p. 63.
  5. ^ "Biblioteca Nazionale di Esperanto | Comune di Massa". www.comune.massa.ms.it. Archived from the original on 14 October 2008.
  6. ^ a b c d Provincia di Massa-Carrara - Biblioteca Nazionale di Esperanto Archived 22 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ^ A Massa la presentazione della Biblioteca Nazionale di Esperanto - intoscana.it.

Bibliography

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  • Amedeo Benedetti, L'Esperanto e la Biblioteca Nazionale di Massa, in Charta, n. 97, May–June 2008, pp. 60–63.
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