Nicola Lanzillotti-Buonsanti Collection

The Veterinary Medicine Library inherited the Nicola Lanzillotti-Buonsanti Collection, presumably in the early decades of the 20th century. Evidence of its original nucleus remains in an early printed catalogue titled Libreria Lanzillotti, though the authorship of its handwritten index cards unfortunately remains unknown. The bibliographic material primarily consisted of reprints. Between 1907 and 1908, when Oreste Pupilli—the first librarian of what was then the Library of the Royal Higher School of Veterinary Medicine—was tasked by the director, Nicola Lanzillotti-Buonsanti, with compiling a new and more up-to-date catalogue, he omitted some of the miscellaneous material. As a result, this material does not appear in his Catalogue of the Library, published in Milan in 1908 by the Premiata Tipografia Agraria. In 2000, as part of a project to recover the historical collections of the University of Milan’s libraries, a decision was made to convert the Libreria Lanzillotti catalogue into an electronic format. Finally, between 2015 and 2017, the cataloguing of the Collection was completed. In addition to the original nucleus of the Libreria Lanzillotti, the Collection included a further 2,165 titles, mostly reprints grouped and bound by subject. It also contained several monographs, including some antique volumes. Despite bearing Professor Lanzillotti-Buonsanti’s stamp and the label of the “Biblioteca della Scuola di veterinaria” (Library of the Veterinary School), matching the exact period of the earlier materials, these monographs had never been catalogued. As they lacked index cards, they were not included in the historical recovery project.

The Collection should be regarded as a distinct and cohesive entity, closely linked to the figure of Nicola Lanzillotti-Buonsanti, director of the Royal Higher School of Veterinary Medicine. It stands as a historical record of the research activities of the time and the scientific and educational endeavours of the School.