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MARIA
LETIZIA SEBASTIANI
written for "Ink and Nib"
The
National Central Library in Florence was founded on December 22,
1861 when the Magliabechiana Library and the Palatina Library
merged to become one. It is one of the most important
bibliographic Italian institutes in terms of the extent and
importance of its stored heritage. It is the only library with
complete documentary evidence of the nation’s cultural life
since 1861.
The Institute holds 25,000 manuscripts, 4,000
incunabula, 29,000 16th century editions, over 7 million volumes
of printed editions, more than 1 million autographs and 250,000
periodicals of which 15,000 are still in print. On top of this
there is a considerable amount of so-called minor material. Among
these we find important business and commercial documents as well
as travel guides, illustrated postcards and a vast collection of
artist books and token books. This is comparable to the
collections held at the National Library of Paris and to the most
important European and non-European ones. The stacks cover a
distance of 124 km and 1.5 km are added every year since the
Institute has the legal deposit of all that is printed in the
country. Besides being the Italian depository, it manages all the
born digital production and digital projects. The art patrimony
amounts to about fifty works among which we find busts, statues,
majolicas and paintings from different periods, some of which are
of particular artistic and historical value.
Its remarkable
patrimony with regards to the variety of modern and contemporary
publishing constitutes the memory of the twentieth century, which
was perhaps the most important century for Italian culture after
the Renaissance. Among its holdings we find books and magazines,
first editions of 20th century works, illustrated books
for children from the late 19th century to our present
day, but also ex libris, illustrations and comic strips from the
1920s and onward with particular reference to the birth of the
national comic strip. We also find autographs, manuscripts, sheet
music and music books as well as the very special world of artist
books that stand witness to the trends and culture of the
time.
Giovanni Cavazzon’s refined “ink and nib” works
have a special place in this scrinium. As we are taken on a
journey winding along the path of lines and strokes, the themes of
the works exhibited go from landscapes to amazing female portraits
and from the representation of flowers to architectural elements
which at times lie in a state of neglect, leading us through a
journey along the paths of the sign and of lines.
There could
not be a better place for such a journey than a library, the king
of sites for “written communication”, the ultimate site for
the conservation of the thoughts and emotions stored over the
centuries making them stable and everlasting. This has been
possible thanks to a variety of instruments beginning with a
stylus and quill feather followed by a pencil, nib and pen to end
up with a typewriter and computer, taking us across several
historical periods from writing as a form of art, to the Gutenberg
press and straight through to the Web universe.
In this
setting the nib has reigned supreme for over a century. It has
been made in many different shapes and sizes according to the use
which it was designed for. It has always been accompanied by the
inseparable inkwell and is still today the leader for creating
refined forms of art as in the works by Cavazzon. And it is by
their very artistic value that these cultural gems and gems of
beauty have become part of the most important and priceless
artistic and historical patrimonies of the world.
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