Gerbi Collection: History

The collection includes 2,466 monographs, reflecting the donor’s academic interests. In recent years, particular attention has been devoted to this archive, as all supplementary materials found within the books—such as handwritten notes, newspaper clippings, and draft manuscripts—have been carefully retrieved and catalogued. These materials are now available for consultation in the library. 

Antonello Gerbi graduated in law and served as Director of the Research Office at Banca Commerciale Italiana from 1932 to 1938. His engagement with Americanist studies developed during a decade-long exile in Peru (1938–1948), where he was forced to emigrate due to racial laws. In his seminal work La disputa del nuovo mondo. Storia di una polemica, 1750-1900 (1955), Gerbi—drawing on an extensive knowledge of European, American, and South American literature—offers an in-depth analysis of the debates that took place between the late 18th and 19th centuries in Europe and the Americas concerning the nature and characteristics of the New World (see Dizionario generale degli autori italiani contemporanei, Florence, Vallecchi, 1974). For further insight into Antonello Gerbi’s life and works, the following volume is available in the library: Francesca Pino, Guido Montanari, with the collaboration of Barbara Costa, Un filosofo in banca. Guida alle carte di Antonello Gerbi, Turin, Intesa Sanpaolo, Rome, Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 2007 (Shelfmark: 10L.07.D. 2520).