The Archives

Origins

The core of the collection is formed by the records and documents collected in almost ten years of activity and bequeathed to the Fondazione di Studi Storici "Filippo Turati" by the Istituto Socialista di Studi Storici (Socialist Institute of Historical Studies) founded in 1976. Other valuable collections have since been acquired by the Turati Foundation in collaboration with the Associazione Nazionale "Sandro Pertini" (Sandro Pertini National Association). 

Strating from the early 1920s, the unflagging commitment of scores of Socialist leaders over the years has permitted to build up an "archive of Italian Socialism". Special mention should be made of Cerchiaro; thanks to his work an Archives of the Avanti! militant daily was set up in 1922. in 1924, with the support of numerous intellectuals and the Confederazione Generale del Lavoro (General Trade-Union Confederation) Filippo Turati opened a special office dedicated to Giacomo Matteotti to promote studies on the Labour Movement. With the coming to power of Fascism in Italy these initiatives suffered a severe set back. In his French exile it was once again Turati who set about the hard task of collecting documents with a view to setting up an exhibition of anti-Fascist publications, an event that was finally to take place in Cologne on 10th June, 1928.

The Second World War was another major calamity with countless documents being lost or destroyed. In 1945 with the War over a first attempt was made by the Socialist Party Press Office to gather materials relating to Socialist activity starting from 1926. In response to an appeal by Vera Modigliani, Alessandro Schiavi, Ludovico D'Aragona, Gino Luzzatto, and others, in 1948 the Directorate of the PSLI (Italian Workers Socialist Party) established a "Historical Archives of Italian Socialism". In 1950 tha appeal was renewed again to the Directorate of the PSI (Italian Socialist Party) by Lelio Basso and several other intellectuals including Gianni Bosio and Giovanni Pirelli, which further boosted the initiative.

In 1976 the project was taken up by Pietro Nenni with the backing of countless militants, sympathisers, historians, politicians and intellectuals. As already mentioned, the project initially took shape through the Istituto Socialista di Studi Storici, but it was with the advent of the Fondazione "Filippo Turati" that it positively got under way acquiring institutional stability and continuity.


Archive Collections

The Foundation is strongly committed to fostering general awareness of the precious documents of which it is endowed and making them accessible to the public also through the use of computerised information systems. Its collection of over 3,100 folders, all of which may be consulted by the public thanks also to the collaboration of the Associazione Nazionale "Sandro Pertini", runs for a total of 520 linear meters. Major collections include documents of the National Steering Committee of the PSI - Italian Socialist Party (1946-1994) and of the PSDI - Italian Socialist Democratic Party (1951-1967), as well as those of the MGS - Movimento Giovanile Socialista (Socialist Youth Movement) and the Movimento Politico dei Lavoratori (Workers' Political Movement). Important collections of documents belonging to Socialist leaders and personalities have also been bequeathed to the Foundation. Worth mentioning are those of Giuseppe Saragat, Sandro Pertini, Ugo Guido and Rodolfo Mondolfo, Paolo and Claudio Treves, Giacomo Matteotti, Riccardo Lombardi, Argentina Altobelli, Ludovico D'Aragona, Bonfantini, Lelio Porzio, Giuseppe Faravelli, Luciano Della Mea, Lelio Lagorio, Mario Zagari, Giacinto Menotti Serrati, Gaetano Arf�, Mauro Ferri, Ignazio Silone, Gaetano Pilati, Enrico Ferri.

Of special interest to scholars is undoubtedly the far-reaching project currently underway to collect and make available Turati's correspondence with contemporary political and intellectual personalities both in Italy and abroad. Research and editorial work is also in progress to bring together through original documents, photo-static reproductions, and microfilms the Turati Archives currently divided up among the International Institute of Social History of Amsterdam, the Biblioteca comunale (Town Library) and Archivio di Stato (State Archives) of Forl�, and the Societ� Umanitaria (Humanitarian Society) of Milan.

The Foundation has also been actively engaged in the acquisition of historically significant documents in copy currently held by other institutions . Special mention must be given to the correspondence of Romeo Soldi, deposited in the Bosio Collection at the Library/Institute of Contemporary History of Mantua; the letters of Giovanni Zibordi to Nino Prandi in the Prandi Collection at the Panizzi Municipal Library in Reggio Emilia; 134 personal files of the Casellario politico centrale (police records) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs deposited in the Central State Archives and dealing with Socialist militants under police surveillance; the Giacinto Menotti Serrati collection and various documents from the late 19th century to World War I in the Liebknecht, Bebel, Kautsky, Longuet, Bernstein, Malon, De Paepe, Vaillant and Mehring collections deposited in Moscow with the Rossijskij centr chranenija i izucenija dokumentov novejsej istorii; documents dealing with domestic Italian policy in the custody of the National Archives in Washington D.C. with special reference to the Matteotti affair deposited in Mussolini's Special Secretariat collection, and other documents dealing with Italian anti-Fascists, subversive activity and the Italian political situation between 1940 and 1954; documents relating to the International Socialist Organisation held by the Office Universitaire de Recherches Socialistes (O.U.R.S.) in Paris; documents covering the period 1873-1912 from the British Labour Party Archives - General Correspondence and Political Records series.

The Foundation also boasts a valuable bibliographic, audio-visual and photographic endowment, as well as a fine collection of mementoes. Its archives are duly recorded with the Soprintendenza Archivistica per la Toscana - Tuscan Archives Commission (registration number 630 of 4th April, 1992 and following).

A computer-aided Guide to the Foundation's collections is currently being prepared in collaboration with the Research and Publications Division of the Central Archives Protection Office of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

To best pursue its objectives for the preservation of and advancement in the study of historical documents and primary source materials the Turati Foundation is a member of important national and international organisations, such as the IALHI (International Association of Labour History Institutions), ICA (International Council on Archives) - Section C: Archives of Parliaments and Political Parties, and ANAI (Associazione Italiana degli Istituti Culturali - Italian Association of Cultural Institutes). The Foundation also collaborates with Italian and foreign public and private institutions, such as the Archivio Centrale dello Stato (Central State Archives), Archivio di Stato di Firenze (State Archives of Florence), Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze (National Central Library of Florence), Soprintendenza Archivistica della Toscana (Tuscan Archives Commission), local institutions and other important organisations that operate in the field of historical research.

General information and rules for consultation

The Filippo Turati Foundation Archives may be accessed free-of-charge by university graduates and scholars. A written request must be addressed to the Director who will subsequently inform the applicant of the first available day for consultation. The written request must detail the following:

- the topic/subject-matter of research; 
- preferred days and times for consultation; 
- a statement committing the applicant to submit a copy of the work/s in which the documents consulted are used and cited to the Archives; - a declaration in which the applicant assumes full legal responsibilities for any damage done to persons or institutions by the diffusion of the information contained in the documents themselves.

For organisational reasons, students working on their university dissertations are not allowed access to the documents for consultation.

The Archive is open to the public by appointment. Pursuant to prevailing laws, consultation of documents is authorised only on Foundation premises at its main offices in via M. Buonarroti, 13 - 50122 Firenze.

Description of Collections:

The following is a list of the collections in the custody of the Filippo Turati Foundation Archives classified according to subject area. Dates in brackets refer to document time span and not to the personal data or activities of each listed person or organisation:

1. ORGANIZZAZIONI POLITICHE - POLITICAL ORGANISATIONS
   Associazione di cultura politica - Movimento politico dei lavoratori - Political Culture Association - Workers' Political Movement (1969-1973); 
   Movimento giovanile socialista - Federazione dei giovani socialisti - Socialist Youth Movement - Federation of Young Socialists (1944-1996); 
   PSI-Direzione nazionale (1946-1994) e archivio aggregato - Italian Socialist Party - National Steering Committee and Associated Archives; 
   PSDI-Direzione nazionale (1951-1967) - Italian Socialist Dmocratic Party - National Steering Committee; 
   PSI-Comitato comunale fiorentino (1973-1986) - Italian Socialist Party - Municipal Committee of Florence.
   

2. DIRIGENTI POLITICI TRA LA FINE DELL'OTTOCENTO ED IL FASCISMO - POLITICAL LEADERS FROM THE LATE 19th CENTURY TO FASCISM
   Biserni Camillo-Cenni Anita (1889-1956); 
   Della Seta Alceste (1908-1940); 
   Ferri Enrico (1876-1927); 
   Forlani Udo (1899-1928); 
   Matteotti Giacomo (1803-1999); 
   Pilati Gaetano (1900-1925; 1928-1999); 
   Serrati Giacinto Menotti (1902-1926); 
   Treves Claudio (1895-1980);
   Turati Filippo (1866-1932).
   

3. DIRIGENTI SINDACALI - UNION LEADERS
   Altobelli Argentina (1889-1942);
   D'Aragona Ludovico (1902-1961).
   

4. EMIGRAZIONE ANTIFASCISTA - ANTI-FASCIST EMIGRATION
   Faravelli Giuseppe (1910-1971);
   Gorni Olindo (1927-1944); 
   Pittoni Bianca (1907-1897) - Arch. Aggr. Antonioletti Liuba (1928-1963).
   

5. RESISTENZA - THE RESISTANCE MOVEMENT
   Banfi Arialdo (1944-1995);
   Bonfantini Corrado (1899-1987);
   Coli Mario (1902-1981);
   Dugoni Eugenio (1913-1968); (*)
   Ferro Giovanni (1909-1999);
   Porzio Lelio (1920-1976);
   

6. ESPONENTI POLITICI DAL SECONDO DOPOGUERRA AD OGGI - POLITICAL EXPONENTS FROM POST-WORLD WAR II TO TODAY
   Bassi Enrico (1918-1985);
   Ferri Mauro (1921-1978);
   Lagorio Lelio (1922-1994);
   Lombardi Riccardo (1923-1984); (*)
   Menchinelli Alessandro (1944-1976);
   Pertini Alessandro (1900-1990);
   Saragat Giuseppe (1954-1988);
   Treves Paolo (1915-1958);
   Zagari Mario (1933-1996).
   

7. ESPONENTI DELLA POLITICA E DELLA CULTURA - POLITICAL AND CULTURAL EXPONENTS
   Agazzi Emilio (1938-1988);
   Arf� Gaetano (1944-1992);
   Conti Elio (1919-1931);
   Della Mea Luciano (1940-2003);
   Luzzatto Guido Ludovico (1917-1990);
   Mondolfo Rodolfo (1900-1939);
   Mondolfo Ugo Guido (1945-1956);
   Pucci Carlo (1892-1918);
   Silone Ignazio (1927-1978).
   

In addition to the collection detailed above which are constantly being added throug acquisitions and donations, there are 10 miscellany collections classified as follows:

1. Emigrazione antifascista in Svizzera (1920-1940) - Anti-Fascist Emigration in Switzerland;
   

2. Movimento operaio e socialista in Toscana - Labour And Socialist Movement in Tuscany (1883-1995);
   

3. Movimento operaio e socialista in Italia - Labour and Socialist Movement in Italy (1944-1995);
   

4. Movimento studentesco e sinistra extraparlamentare in Toscana - Students' Movement and extra-Parliamentary Left Wing Groups in Tuscany (1968-1978);
   

5. Federazioni provinciali e sezioni del PSI - Provincial Federations and PSI Chapters (1950-1994);
   

6. Organizzazioni politiche straniere: SFIO - Foreign Political Organisations: SFIO-PS (1950-1988); 

7. Organizzazioni politiche straniere: UGT - Social Political Organisations: UGT (1947-1971);
   

8. Manifesti - Manifestoes;
   

9. Bandiere - Flags;
   

10. Fotografie - Photographs

11. Audiovisivi - Audio-visual Materials.
    

Collections Inventory available online

The inventories of the following collections are available for consultation

(Section is currently being updated)

- FONDO EUGENIO DUGONI
- FONDO RICCARDO LOMBARDI (partially)