APICE's Seminars - Anarchist Individualism in Milan

In collaboration with the Department of Historical Studies “Federico Chabod”, APICE – Archivi della Parola, dell’Immagine e della Comunicazione Editoriale – is organising the seminar “Anarchist Individualism in Milan: Politics, Publishing and Art in the Early Twentieth Century” (Italian title: L’individualismo anarchico a Milano. Politica, editoria e arte agli inizi del XX secolo), to be held on Tuesday 12 May 2026 from 2.30 p.m. in Room 113, Via Festa del Perdono 3.

The event is part of a wider programme promoting the Giuseppe Monanni Collection, held at APICE. The collection includes the archive and library of the anarchist publisher Giuseppe Monanni (1887–1952), who was active in Milan between the 1910s and 1930s and, together with his partner Leda Rafanelli (1880–1971), ran a number of publishing ventures. The collection offers significant insight into the anarchist culture of the period, including rare journals, editorial material, correspondence, and documents relating to censorship and publishing under the Fascist regime.

Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the seminar will explore the complexity of Milanese anarchist individualism by bringing political history, intellectual history, publishing history and art history into dialogue. In the early twentieth century, Milan became one of Europe’s leading centres of individualist anarchism. Newspapers, journals and publishing houses fostered a dynamic and multifaceted milieu, closely connected with politics, the world of labour and the arts. Despite its importance, this phenomenon has received limited historiographical attention and therefore warrants further study.
The programme will include papers on Ettore Molinari, Nella Giacomelli, Carlo Carrà, Ugo Fedeli, Bruno Filippi, Leda Rafanelli and Giuseppe Monanni.

The seminar will be introduced by Gianfranco Ragona (University of Turin) and chaired by Lorenzo Pezzica (University of Bologna).
Speakers include Elena Papadia (Sapienza University of Rome), Antonio Senta (University of Bologna), Virginia Magnaghi (Biblioteca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute), David Bernardini, Roberta Cesana, and Nicola Del Corno (University of Milan).

The seminar will also be streamed live on Microsoft Teams.