Archive of the Regia Scuola Superiore di Medicina Veterinaria di Milano (1807-1934)

by Stefano Twardzik

The Royal Veterinary School of Milan (1807-1814), later known as the Imperial-Royal Veterinary Institute (1815-1859), the Royal Higher School of Veterinary Medicine (1860-1924), and finally the Royal Higher Institute of Veterinary Medicine from 1924 to 1932 (the year it was incorporated into the University of Milan as the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine), is one of the oldest veterinary schools in Europe. It was founded in 1791, during the final years of the first Austrian rule over Lombardy. The school’s archives have been preserved since 1807, the year it was re-established as a four-year comprehensive veterinary programme under the Napoleonic administration. No other similar institutions in Italy have maintained archives with the same continuity and completeness as those of Milan, comprising 248 storage units (folders and registers) dating from 1807 to 1934. The Biblioteca di Medicina Veterinaria holds the most substantial part of this collection (152 units), including the entire pre-unification section of the archive.

These documents shed light on the various aspects of the institution’s activities through different political regimes: as a training centre for the emerging veterinary profession, as an establishment closely linked to the needs of the region (for example, through its animal clinics), and from the 1880s onwards, as a centre for research and scientific dissemination.

As evidenced by the archival series overview stored in Lodi (1), the most extensive documentation consists of the Annual Correspondence of the School’s Directorate, preserved with reasonable continuity both for the pre-unification and post-unification periods. The correspondence from the first two decades of the 20th century is more fragmented but remains of great historical interest.

Until 2003, the archive was in complete disarray, but it has since been reorganised and catalogued in an analytical inventory, published by Stefano Twardzik under the title L’archivio della Regia Scuola superiore di medicina veterinaria di Milano (1807-1934). Inventario (Rome, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2020).

The collection is freely accessible by appointment.

Overview of the Series Preserved at the Biblioteca di Medicina Veterinaria

Royal Veterinary School, later Imperial-Royal Veterinary Institute (1807-1859)

Directorate – Annual Correspondence

• Annual Correspondence, 1807-1841, folders 1-21
• Annual Correspondence organised by rubriche (themes), 1842-1859, folders 22-41

Economic Administration

• Annual Correspondence, 1808-1840, 1845, folders 42-61
• Auction Records and Contracts, 1826-1856, folders 62-63

Student Catalogues, 1842-1857, 1860-1863, folders 64-66

Student Case Histories, 1835-1860, 1869/70, folders 67-72

Certified Graduates Register, 1812-1851, register 73

Royal Higher School of Veterinary Medicine, later Royal Higher Institute of Veterinary Medicine (1860-1934)

Directorate – Annual Correspondence  

• Correspondence organised by rubriche (themes), 1860-1867, folders 74-80
• Correspondence organised by pratiche (categories), 1868-1896, folders 81-116
• Correspondence organised according to classification system (titolario)

Titolario, 1896/97-1924, folders 117-143

*Documents recalled by the University Administration, 1902-1934, folders 144-145 (*APICE Centre)

Lesson Registers, 1910/11-1925/26, folders 146-151

Documents created for commemorative or historical purposes, 1865-1930, folders 246-248

(1) Other series, mainly student records, matriculation registers, and graduation transcripts, are stored at the APICE Centre in Milan. APICE is a functional centre of the University of Milan responsible for preserving the University’s Historical Archive.