Archives

The Cederna publishing house was founded in Milan in the years immediately following the Liberation, when Enrico Cederna and Gianni Antonini decided to publish a series of major foreign authors edited by distinguished men and women of letters.

Cristoforo De Amicis (1902–1987), a painter from Alessandria, began teaching at the Brera Academy’s Scuola Artefici and became its director in 1955. From 1927 onwards he took part in the leading art exhibitions in Italy and abroad. 

The Paper Mills Archive consists of 403 units, including folders, registers and maps. The material provides extensive documentation on the foundation and activity of numerous Italian paper mills between 1832 and 1990. 

Spartaco Cadioli’s (1925–2016) bookplate collection comprises around 15,000 items, the earliest dating back to the eighteenth century, and represents more than 2,000 artists. It is divided into two main sections: a historical nucleus and a collection of contemporary ex libris. 

The archive of Alba Morino (1929–2017) includes papers, a large body of writings, the journal and series EnnErre, which she founded and edited, a rich correspondence, and 2,000 volumes from her personal library, including many Feltrinelli first editions. 

The collection preserves correspondence, preparatory materials, multiple manuscript and typescript drafts of all Alberto Vigevani’s published and unpublished works, as well as proofs and reviews. Vigevani (1918–1999) was an intellectual, writer, antiquarian bookseller and publisher. 

Aldo Borlenghi (1913–1976) was a poet, literary critic and Professor of Philology at the University of Milan. The collection includes part of his library and writings dating from the late 1950s to the first half of the 1970s.

The archive of painter and Brera Academy Director Aldo Carpi (1886–1973) documents both his artistic work and his civic engagement through correspondence, photographs of artworks, original drawings and press cuttings. 

A French Egyptologist active at Medamud and Karnak, A. Varille left a collection containing thousands of photographs, correspondence with leading Egyptologists of the mid-20th century, and important working documents. 
 

Alfredo Schiaffini (1895–1971) was one of the leading Italian linguists of the twentieth century. His archive consists of an extensive correspondence, numerous study and working notes, reviews by and about Schiaffini, and a box of linguistic index cards.

Anna Maria Brizio taught Medieval and Modern Art History at the University of Milan from 1957 to 1977. Her books and personal archive, donated at the end of her career, form a cornerstone of the library’s holdings.

The archive is divided into two sections: the first includes papers, materials, and print drafts by Banfi; the second consists of documents produced by his wife Malaguzzi Valeri in the context of commemorations held in Banfi’s honour.

Antonio Porta, pseudonym of Leo Paolazzi (1935–1989), was a poet and novelist, a member of the literary avant-garde groups I Novissimi and Gruppo 63. Alongside the archive stands his personal library of 4,500 volumes.

The archive of the noble Calvi family consists of deeds and documents tracing the family’s history from the early eighteenth century to the first half of the twentieth century. These papers are complemented by a substantial iconographic section. 

The archive of the Gianni and Cosetta Colla Marionette Theatre documents their prestigious collaborations with leading contemporary artists and directors, as well as their involvement in opera productions and other meta-marionette experiments.

The Archive of the Royal Higher School of Veterinary Medicine of Milan (1807–1934) contains documents dating partly from the Napoleonic era and the Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom. Notably, it stands out for the richness and uninterrupted continuity of its chronological records. 

The collection, acquired by the Library in 1997, also includes working documents (letters, technical reports, etc.), publications from various institutions, and geological and topographical maps, both printed (often annotated) and hand-drawn.

The Arturo Schwarz (1924–2021) Compendium consists of an archive and library amounting to 616 boxes in total. The library contains around 31,000 volumes, while the archive preserves correspondence, photographs, the author’s writings and materials relating to his gallery.

Donated by his heirs, Luciano and Roberto Bassani, the archive of historian and literary critic Attilio Momigliano includes personal and family correspondence, extracts edited by the author, and inserts from volumes in his personal library.

The collection of French Egyptologist A. Mariette, founder of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, contains documents related to his discovery of the Serapeum of Saqqara (1850), compiled in an album. 
 

Bartolo Cattafi (1922–1979) was one of the most compelling Italian poets of the twentieth century. The bibliographical collection includes around 2,500 volumes from his personal library, while the archive gathers materials from his long poetic career. 

The collection of German Egyptologist B. V. Bothmer, professor at NY University and Director of the Department of Ancient Art at the Brooklyn Museum, includes dossiers, photographs, and an extensive correspondence with Egyptologists and cultural institutions. 

The personal and working archive of Professor Bruno Caizzi. His research interests focused on the Southern Question, the economic history of Lombardy, and its connections with the economy of Ticino. 
The Library also preserves the Caizzi book collection.

This archive is part of a digitisation project aimed at promoting the thought of the American philosopher. It includes microfilm copies of Peirce’s original manuscripts, totalling over 50,000 frames.

This collection was assembled and preserved by the Italian company Società Italiana per Condotte d’Acqua S.p.A., documenting their work on the relocation and conservation of the temples of Philae Island in Egypt. 

The archive includes working papers, personal documents, academic reports, letters, academic course materials, degree theses and drafts. Some audio-visual materials, primarily interviews and lectures, is already available in digital format.

The archive of Elio Vittorini (1908–1966) includes original manuscripts and typescripts, working documents and correspondence that make it possible to reconstruct both the writer’s creative work and his activity as a journalist, publisher and cultural organiser.

This collection arrived at the University of Milan in two phases: first with the purchase of the Egyptologist’s library, in which numerous documents were discovered, and later as a donation from his student M. Görg. 
 

The archive includes original typewritten handouts of the courses by Giuseppe Antonio Borgese: writer, literary critic and professor of aesthetics at the University of Milan. Those materials belonged to Elvira Gandini, Borgese's student, and were donated to the library by her heirs

The archive of poet and novelist Ennio Contini (1914–2006) is divided into six sections. The collection documents the work of an artist shaped by a dramatic personal and historical experience and distinguished by a distinctive creative voice.

Donated in 2006, this collection of German demotic scholar E. Lüddeckens consists of extracts featuring annotations, dedications, and autographs from various authors. 
 

Filippo Crivelli was a director of musical theatre, drama, and television and radio productions. The archive gathers a wide range of materials related to his directorial work, spanning from the 1950s to the first decade of the 2000s.

Gabriele Mucchi (1899–2002), son of the painter Anton Maria Mucchi, was a painter, architect and designer active in Milan, Paris and Berlin. Donated by the artist’s heirs, the collection is divided into three parts: the library, the archive and an iconographic section. 

Best known as a journalist, editor of Il Tempo and deputy editor of Corriere della Sera, Gaspare Barbiellini Amidei (1934–2007) was also a prolific essayist and lecturer in the sociology of communication. 

The collection of Egyptologists G.A. Reisner and C.M. Firth was recovered within the Varille collection and contains photographs related to the Archaeological Survey of Nubia, the excavation campaign they conducted in Lower Nubia between 1907 and 1911. 
 

An English engineer who collaborated with the EEF Archaeological Survey, Fraser produced maps of the Beni Hasan and El-Bersha sites. His collection includes copies of inscriptions and graffiti, drawings of scarabs he owned, and photographs. 
 

The archive of Gina Lagorio, pen name of Luigina Bernocco (1922–2005), preserves correspondence, proof copies of essays, preparatory materials, articles, reviews, interviews, writings, documents relating to her political and parliamentary activity, and a number of books from her library. 

The archive of the musician and composer Gino Negri (1919–1991), an experimenter and creator of new musical genres, preserves traces of all these artistic activities.

The Giosuè Bonfanti (1915–2000) Collection consists of an archive, including essays, short stories, notes on books he read, reviews, press articles, recorded conversations and correspondence, together with around 300 books from the writer’s personal library.

This collection preserves evidence of all the work of the poet and translator Giovanna Bemporad (1923–2013), including her literary activity, her studies on Leopardi and Virgil, and her extensive correspondence. A group of volumes from her personal library completes the collection.

The Giovanni Gandini (1929–2006) Collection, relating to the Italian publisher of the magazine Linus, contains more than fifty archival boxes of material connected with his publishing activity, including manuscripts, correspondence with authors and publishers, and original drawings by the magazine’s illustrators.

The papers in the archive of Giovanni Giudici (1924–2011), one of the foremost voices in contemporary Italian poetry, include manuscripts, typescripts, correspondence, critical material and the author’s journalistic writings. Of particular importance are his diaries and notebooks. 

The archive contains an extensive correspondence with prominent figures of Italian and international culture (including Croce, Mach, Pareto, and Peano), as well as notebooks and preparatory drafts for his scholarly work.

The Giulio Cisari (1892–1979) Collection is divided into two sections: one comprising around 1,500 books, fascicles, pamphlets and sheet music with covers designed by the artist, and another drawn from his personal archive containing around 750 loose covers.

This archive documents the work and academic activities of Giulio Preti, including a substantial series of unpublished manuscripts photocopied from originals housed in the Preti Archive in Florence.

This collection includes correspondence between Botti and his family, offering insights into his career as an Egyptologist and information on the management of the Greco-Roman Museum of Alexandria and his excavations. 
 

The personal and working archive of Giuseppe Martini (Rome 1908–Milan 1979), Professor of Medieval History at the University of Milan. It includes lecture notes, academic documents, correspondence, and drafts. 

The Library also holds his book collection.

This collection includes the books and archive of the anarchist publisher Giuseppe Monanni (1887–1952), active in Milan from the 1910s to the 1940s with his own editions and, after the Second World War, editorial director at Rizzoli. 

Donated by the philosopher’s widow, this archive contains notes, preparatory materials, correspondence, and a large collection of articles by and about Rensi.

This collection brings together letters, typescripts, novels, press reviews and exhibition catalogues relating to the work of publisher and writer Gualtieri di San Lazzaro (1904–1974), together with notes by his wife, the sculptor Maria Papa. 

Guido da Verona (1881–1939) was a poet and novelist, famous for his first novel, Colei che non si deve amare. The archive preserves papers relating above all to his literary activity, together with evidence of his critical reception. 

The collection gathers documents related to the academic work of Neri as a scholar of aesthetics. It includes personal papers, study notebooks, notes and correspondence, as well as typescripts and manuscripts for research and study activities.

This collection comprises numerous letters sent to the German Egyptologist Brugsch by the scholar A. Mariette, along with rich correspondence between Brugsch and his colleagues A. Erman, Baron von Minutoli, J. Dümichen, and others. 
 

A painter and wood engraver, Italo Zetti (1913–1978) studied at the Higher Institute of Art in Florence and made his debut at a very young age. He was particularly active in the field of ex libris, and APICE preserves a collection of 168 of his bookplates, some of them extremely rare.

Recovered within the Varille Collection, this archive contains photographs of the Saqqara excavations conducted by English Egyptologist J.E. Quibell (1900-1910) and the artefacts uncovered. 
 

The Library received a donation of 151 screen-printed and offset posters from the DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion in Tokyo, representing Japanese graphic design from the 1960s onwards.

The John Alcorn (1935–1992) Archive traces the full span of his graphic and artistic career, from his work at the prestigious Push Pin Studios in the late 1950s to the projects left unfinished at the time of his premature death in 1992. 

The archive of Luciana Novaro, a prominent figure in the history of Italian dance and closely associated with La Scala, documents the ballerina’s intense artistic life and her collaborations with many of the most celebrated artists of the twentieth century.

The archive contains various documents (1836–1981) produced and received by Eugenio Torelli Viollier, or related to his role as founder and director of Corriere della Sera. 

The library also preserves the associated book collection.  

Donated to the Department of Philosophy by his family, this archive includes Dal Pra’s personal papers, correspondence, a collection of writings, and materials related to his academic career.

A journalist, theatre and film critic, Maurizio Porro donated a collection of 5,541 pressbooks to the Library in 2000. These pressbooks are promotional materials created and distributed by film producers to market their films.

The Rapisarda Collection, assembled by Michele Rapisarda over more than forty years, comprises over 21,000 items of printed ephemera intended for everyday and occasional use.

The archive preserves documentation of fifty years of activity of the bookshop and publishing house Milano Libri, opened in Milan in 1962 by Annamaria Gandini, Laura Lepetit and Vanna Vettori. 

The archive contains the working materials of Martini, a scholar of aesthetics at the Universities of Pavia and Milan. It also contains personal correspondence, studies and commemorations dedicated to Martini, and drafts of his volume La deformazione estetica

Nino Berrini (1880–1962) was a playwright, theatre director, journalist and writer. Covering the years 1906 to 1956, the archive includes letters exchanged with more than fifty correspondents, various autograph documents and a typescript compiled by Romolo Codogni. 

Nino (Giuseppe) Besozzi (1901–1971) was a film and stage actor active from the 1920s to the 1960s. His archive consists of 29 bound volumes in which the actor himself sought to preserve the memory of his artistic career. 

Paolo Vigevani (1943–2020) lived and worked between Venice and Milan. Head of Edizioni Il Polifilo, he also pursued a passion for photography and exhibited his work in a number of exhibitions.

Acquired in 2000 along with the book collection of Paul Maas, the archive contains various documents extracted from the volumes, including correspondence, working notes, and articles bearing handwritten annotations by the Greek and Byzantine philologist.

The Peter Arms Wick (1920–2004) Collection comprises around 200 illustrated English, French and American volumes dating from the eighteenth to the twentieth century.

La Notte, the daily newspaper founded by the industrialist Carlo Pesenti, was published in Milan from 1952 to 1995. Under the direction of Nino Nutrizio it established itself as a leading national newspaper, with especially high circulation in Milan.

The library’s photographic archive comprises 27,829 photographs and 1,238 documents. Continuously enriched over the decades, it has been an essential resource for academic teaching and research in art history for over 60 years.

The collection of French Egyptologist P. Lacau consists of correspondence with colleagues and major institutions from his years directing the Egyptian Antiquities Service, as well as numerous photographs of sites and monuments. 
 

Author of Cion Cion blu, Pinin Carpi (1920-2004) preserved documentation relating to his prolific work as an illustrator and writer for younger readers, as well as valuable material on the teaching and workshop activities he carried out in schools across Italy.

This archive documents the typographical and publishing activity of the Pirola press, founded in Milan in 1781 by the brothers Giacomo and Gaetano Pirola. Alongside its printing work, its publishing vocation fully developed under the leadership of Luigi, Giacomo’s son. 

Donated to APICE in 2003, the Ricciardi publishing house collection is made up of two parts: the library, containing a large proportion of the books issued by the press, and the archive, consisting of documents connected with its publishing activity.

The archive collects part of the papers by Rodolfo Mondolfo, historian of philosophy and exile in Argentina, his correspondence, essays and newspaper articles dedicated to him. The rest of the archive is located at the Turati Foundation in Florence.

The Scheiwiller Collection, comprising both library and archive, preserves materials relating to Giovanni and Vanni Scheiwiller and to their publishing house All’Insegna del Pesce d’Oro, active in Milan from 1925 to 1999.

Sergio Antonielli (1920–1982), novelist and literary critic, was Professor of Modern and Contemporary Italian Literature at the University of Milan. His archive reveals the breadth and complexity of his intellectual profile. 

The archive of Silvana Mauri (1920–2006), Valentino Bompiani’s niece, is divided into four series and includes her published and unpublished writings, private papers, correspondence, and an extensive exchange of letters with her friend Pier Paolo Pasolini. 

Through photographs, letters, diaries, personal and family documents, newspaper cuttings, autobiographical writings and poems, the Silvia Giacomoni (1938–2025) Archive retraces both her life and her professional career as a journalist and expert on the Bible. 

Stefania Stefani Perrone was an art historian active in Varallo, where she moved in 1964 and held various institutional roles at the Pinacoteca and the Sacro Monte. This archive documents her research and professional activities.

This collection comprises 43 handwritten stage scripts from the Compagnia Reale Sarda, dating from approximately 1830 to 1855. These scripts were likely intended for Federico Ferroni, the company’s prompter or stage assistant.

The archive of the Ulrico Hoepli publishing house, founded in Milan in the late 1870s by Ulrico Hoepli (1847–1935), consists of more than 60 linear metres of documentary material relating to its publications, from the late nineteenth century to the 1960s. 

The University of Milan was founded in 1924, and its archive preserves documentation produced by the University itself and by the institutions that preceded it: the Scientific-Literary Academy, the Clinical Institutes of Specialisation, the School of Agriculture and the School of Veterinary Medicine. 

The Valentino Bompiani (1898–1992) Collection consists of the publisher’s archive and personal library of around 8,000 volumes, together with an almost complete run of the books issued by his publishing house.

This archive consists of manuscripts, typescripts, travel diaries, photographs, notes, family papers, correspondence and articles by the journalist and writer Vittorio, known as Orio, Vergani (1898–1960).

This collection was identified within the archive of A. Varille and includes excavation journals documenting his discoveries in the Valley of the Kings, along with extensive correspondence with other Egyptologists and scholars. 
 

Vsevolod Nikulin (1890–1968) arrived in Italy in 1920 and established his career here as a painter, set designer, decorator and above all illustrator. The archive brings together materials ranging from the early twentieth century to the artist’s death.

An eminent professor of Egyptology at Yale and Harvard, as well as an archaeologist and excavation director in Egypt, W.K. Simpson’s archive includes an extensive correspondence with Egyptologists and scholars from other disciplines. 
 

Acquired in 2006 by the University of Milan, the collection of Danish demotic studies scholar W. Erichsen includes research documents and letters received during his forty-year career. 
 

The journal Lo Smeraldo. Rivista letteraria e di cultura was one of the most interesting and widely read literary showcases of the 1950s and 1960s.