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RESEARCH
HELP > HUMANITIES
AND AREA STUDIES > FRENCH
AND ITALIAN STUDIES
French and Italian Studies
Collections on Special Topics
These large collections and sets
of microfilms were acquired from
1985 to 2006. Information on materials added in earlier
years is
available
from the curator.
In 1987 the library acquired a major collection on Dante Alighieri,
comprised of over 3,000 volumes and including nine fifteenth-century
editions of the Commedia as well as a 1490 printing
of the Convivio. Sixteenth-century editions form a
significant part of the collection, including all major commentaries,
early printing, and the rich texture of criticism evoked by the
content and language of the poet’s work. The collection's
critical studies extend into the mid twentieth century, adding modern
editions with new commentary, key translations, commemorative publications,
related political and cultural ephemera, and sources that highlight
the extensive iconographic tradition associated with Dante. From
Wendelin de Spira and Aldus Manutius to Giovanni Battista Bodoni,
William Blake and Salvador Dali, the collection illustrates the
variety of criticism and publishing ventures the poet inspired.
While the collection’s individual titles are dispersed throughout
the Green Library stacks and in the Department of Special Collections,
a full list of the original contents may be seen in a typescript
abbreviated list, with fuller descriptions of rare editions in the
collector’s extensive notebooks and in his annotated copy
of Giuliano Mambelli’s Gli annali delle edizioni dantesche
(Bologna: Zanichelli, 1931). An exhibit in 1988, titled “Al
divino dall’umano,” highlighted a large part of the
Collection. On the cover of the exhibit checklist is a line drawing
derived from the romanticized
portrait of Dante found in the 1564 Cristoforo Landino
edition of the Commedia, often called the “gran
naso” edition. Information on the exhibition and samples
of commemorative keepsakes can be obtained from the Curator or from
the Department of Special Collections.
This collection of 314 titles contains imprints from 1509 to 1892,
and is largely composed of studies written soon after the death
of
the person whose life is described. Thus they are sources in themselves,
reflecting contemporary views of both well-known individuals, such
as the Aldus Manutius biography of Lorenzo de’ Medici, and
of defined groups such as women religious and beate.
The largest group of titles is from the 18th century, while the rest
are
distributed evenly over the 16th, 17th and 19th centuries. Their
subjects range from familiar names to lesser-known but significant
individuals
whose biographies offer insight into their time or associations.
Twenty-two of the studies are on women, with a special emphasis on
women who
had spiritually influenced particular religious orders. A checklist
of titles in the collection is available from the curator. This collection
is complemented by strong collections in Italian biography both in
the main Green Library collections and in the extensive resources
provided by the microfiche set of the Archivio
Biografico Italiano and through the Saur World
Biographical Index on CD-ROM.
This collection of 161 titles is focused on charity, welfare, and
social security in France from the 17th to the early 20th centuries.
While a major part of the titles were published in the 19th century,
a significant portion also falls within the early modern period, including
contemporary biographies of philanthropists, plans for hospitals,
poor relief programs, and theoretical treatises surveying the whole
range of problems inherent in social welfare. Official publications
are included as well as ephemeral material produced for private groups
involved in public assistance. A checklist of titles is available
from the curator.
Building on already strong holdings in the Department of Special Collections,
this set of 75 titles spans the 17th through the 19th centuries. The
18th-century section is the largest, containing frequently-cited titles
that represent changes in the concept of civility. Though the focus
reflects the collector’s interest in diplomacy, the range of
works is broad, covering court life, royal entries, letter writing,
and education of the young in the ways of socially proper savoir-vivre.
A full checklist is available from the curator. Comparable works may
also be found in the library’s collection of works published
in the Bibliothèque bleue de Troyes.
Clustered largely during the reign of Louis XV, these sources offer
an in-depth look at the concerns of both theorists and activists,
reformers intent on ending abuses in government and in consolidating
their own power in ways that foreshadow issues in contention during
the Revolutionary period. The approximately 450 titles in the collection
extend from 1750 to 1788, in three large segments: Parlements (226
numbered items dated 1750-1787), Assemblées provinciales (69
numbered items, 86 titles, dated from 1787-1788), and Miscellaneous
source publications and studies (14 separately-catalogued treatises
or studies, a set of 24 works on Chancellor Maupeou, and a bound-together
set of 32 items on the Grand Conseil).
The collection’s legal documents and commentaries cover
a broad range of topics, including taxation, church-state relations,
trade regulations, judicial practices and powers, disputes with
royal agents, and the consolidation of provincial assemblies.
In
order to facilitate use of a complex set of documents, most of
them bound together in several sets, a
guide and full listing of titles is available.
More recent acquisitions have been selected to complement
this collection and the Gimon Collection of French Political
Economy. Of notable interest are two bound manuscript collections
compiled by successive premier commis des finances which
detail the finances of the kingdom during the 18 th century:
- French finances before the Revolution : a collection
of printed and manuscript texts dealing with the years of Necker's
terms in office, 1776-1781. Click for the table of contents
for this collection . MSS Codex 0079
- Villiers, Marc de, 1672-1762. Villiers,
Jacques Etienne de. Mémoires sur la finance par
rapport au gouvernement qu'en a M. le Controleur général,
rédigés par Marc de Villiers Secrétaire
du roi et premier Commis des finances, qui les a achevés
en 1742 et y fait différentes additions jusqu'en 1754.
Continués par Jacques Etienne de Villiers, Conseiller
au Chatelet, et premier commis des finances, son fils jusqu'en
1758 . Detailed table of contents and index. 596 pages,
covering the years 1726-1772.
The French Revolution Research
Collection=Les archives de la Révolution Française
This microfiche set is included with major acquisitions because
it is so closely related to recently-acquired large collections
on
early
modern France. Published by Pergamon Press and G.K. Hall, in cooperation
with the Bibliothèque nationale, The French Revolution
Research Collection and Videodisk was edited by an international
team of scholars who assembled an archive on the full spectrum
of
French history during this period. It encompassed all types of
documents, among them memoirs, newspapers, pamphlets, posters,
financial statements,
church records, state decrees, and research guides. It took over
five years to complete the set of approximately 12,000 titles in
12 large
thematic sections and a related videodisk containing 38,000 images.
General information on this collection is available on Socrates
- MFICHE 1298, and
all titles are listed in several volumes of guides in the Media-MTXT
Reading Room and in the HAS Research Center (Lane Room).
The various documents have now all been incorporated into
the BnF's digital library, Gallica, but the guides remain useful
for providing an overview of its contents. SOCRATES
lists the collection’s indexes, and additional information
is available from the curator.
Paris Commune Collection
 The Paris Commune Collection was acquired in 2005. It consists
of over one thousand titles dating from 1870 to the present.
Provenance: Mr. Robert
Le
Quillec, a collector and bibliographer of the event. Included among
the titles are personal and journalistic accounts of the Commune,
memoirs, historical monographs, contemporary posters, journals
and individual and bound articles. Paris Commune (1871), Franco-Prussian
War, workers' rights, 19th century French socialism.
Individual items of this collection can be found searching
SOCRATES by Subject: Paris Commune Collection.
Postcard collections in French and Italian
Studies
Concentrated mainly in the late 19th century into the 1950s, the
library’s collections of original postcards offer images that
are useful in several fields of study, including the history of
travel and of colonialism. These original collections, both in Green
and Hoover, are supplemented by CD-ROM sets of postcards assembled
by other institutions and collectors. The following descriptions
do not represent a comprehensive list, but offer highlights of some
collections, both original and in other form, along with a selection
of a few books dealing with this topic.
Note that Hoover Institution holdings are not included, with the
exception of one example of African postcards.
France and Italy (also Europe in general)
- Morley, S. Griswold (Sylvanus Griswold), 1878-1970,
collector.
Postcard collection, 1890-1914.
3 linear ft. M0872
A scholar of the Romance languages, particularly Spanish, and professor in
the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at U.C. Berkeley. Morley traveled
extensively in Europe before World War I, and it is from this era that his
card collection is gleaned.
Gift of James M. Morley, 1996.
Indexes: Unpublished guide available.
Italy
- Italy and area: postcard collection,
ca. 1900-1958.
1.5 linear ft. (ca. 1500 postcards) in two boxes. M1167
Approximately 20% are postally used, many with stamps intact. The usual tourist
destinations are well represented (Rome, Florence, Pisa, Venice, Milan, Siena)
but hundreds of out-of-the-way locations (e.g. Dobbico, Faenza, Albano, Nemi,
etc.) are also present. Perhaps 20% depict interiors of points-of-interest
(e.g. churches, castles, government buildings, museums, etc.); the rest are
largely scenes in the countryside,
ruins, architecture, etc. Perhaps less than 5% are issued after 1940.
Our collection has been grouped into the following themes: ancient architecture,
building facades, roads, panoramic views, plazas and courtyards, religious
architecture (exteriors and interiors), religious art, postcards in series,
colorized touristic photos, secular art, monuments and fountains, natural settings,
and sent postcards.
Francophone Africa
- Africa: postcard collection, ca.
1880-1950.
3 albums as well as loose cards (ca. 1000 cards total). 2 linear
ft. M0814
Usually French photographers of French Africa. Three different accessions
purchased from same dealer, although previous provenance is mixed.
Some cards are written on; some not. Accession 1995-244 is in box
1, and consists of one album and 26 folders totaling some 500 cards.
The photographers listed as added entries can all be found in this
accession. Accession 2000-238 is in box 2 (Senegal, some 197 loose
cards in folders) and in box 3 (album of ca. 300 cards of French
West Africa, French Equatorial Africa, North Africa, Madagasca,
Aden, Somali Coast, Union of South Africa, Zanzibar, etc.). Accession
2000-276 is also in box 3 and consists of an album of ca. 300 cards
that are largely sub-Saharan Africa, mostly from former French colonies
and the Belgian Congo, but also some from North Africa, Union of
South Africa, and a scattering of other British-controlled territories.
Approximately 90% of these were issued before 1940.
(Finding guide in progress)
- African pictorial collection, 1889-1994.
HV-ARCHIVE XX(4086127.1)
95 envelopes, 1 ms. box, 1 album box, 6 slide boxes, 1 oversize
folder.
Photographs, postcards, and slides, depicting scenes of daily
life, cultural and historical sites, prominent personalities,
and works
of art in various countries of Africa.
Indochine
- Vietnam : rebels and pirates (The Yen Thãe
Rebellion).Collection of 19 vintage postcards
/ Pierre Dieulefils, photographe-editeur de cartes postale
d'Indochine.
Postcards on CD-ROM
- Images de France d’autrefois
Computer data and program, France : MTS IM.
Media, c1995. DC35 .5 .F736 1995 Also available online.
Database of postcards from all regions of France around the turn
of the 20th century. Cards depict rural, village and urban life.
Database allows searching by locale, postal code, class and description.
Images may be downloaded and processed with Photoshop or other image
software.
Selected bibliography
(a few examples of a much larger number of titles related to postcard
collections or postcards as representations)
- Alloula, Malek. The Colonial Harem. Trans. By Myrna Godzich
and Wlad Godzich Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995.
HQ1791 .5 .A7613 1986
- Attal, Robert. Juifs du maghreb: catalogue de la collection
de cartes postales du fonds Gerard Lévy déposé
à l’Institut Ben Zvi à Jérusalem. Jerusalem:
Institut Ben Zvi, 1990. DS135 .A25 M37 1990
- Phillips, Tom, 1937-The postcard century: 2000 cards and their
messages. London : Thames & Hudson, 2000. NC1872 .P42
2000 F
- Smalley, Martha Lund. Communications From the Field: Missionary
Postcards from Africa. New Haven, Yale Divinity School Library,
1994. BV3500.C66 1994
Last modified:
March 20, 2009
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