Developing and Managing the Brown University Library Collections
Collection Policies by Subject:   Early Modern and Modern Italian History

• Library Liaison:
  Patricia_Figueroa@brown.edu
  
  
• Modern European History (Overview)

• Overview of the Collection
  The Library’s collection of Italian early modern and modern history serves the needs of the faculty, visiting professors and scholars, researchers, John Carter Brown (JCB) Library fellows, graduate and undergraduate students, and other users within the Brown University community who are studying Italian history and cultural studies, and, more broadly, Western European history and cultural studies. Departments, programs, and centers such as Italian Studies, the Department of Anthropology, the History Department, and the Watson Institute for International Relations are the principal users of this collection.
  
  
• Specific Collecting Guidelines
  • Language: Primary and secondary materials in Italian and English language form the core of the collection. Primary materials in Latin, Italian dialects and minority languages, as well as secondary materials in French, Spanish, and German, are acquired selectively.
  • Chronological Span:The periods and themes of Italian history that are primarily collected are the French loss of Naples; Spanish hegemony over the Italian states (except Venice); 17th-century crisis; reform and Enlightenment in the 18th century; French invasion of Italy; roots of the Risorgimento; the Italian republics of 1796–99; collapse of the republics; the French Consulate and the Napoleonic empire; the Restoration period; the unification of Italy (Giuseppe Mazzini, Young Italy, and Giuseppe Garibaldi) and the Risorgimento; the Crispi era, 1887–1900; the Giolitti era, 1900–14; World War I; the Fascist era (the rise of Mussolini); World War II; birth of the Italian republic; the economic miracle; life in Northern Italy vs. the mezzogiorno; the EEC and the Treaty of Rome (1957); the Communist party and Enrico Berlinguer; the trade unions in the 1960s and 70s; the Red Brigades (Brigate Rosse) and the assassination of prime minister Aldo Moro; mid-1980s Italian Mafia networks; and Italy's membership in the European Union. General histories of Italy are also collected.
    Note: the medieval history of Italy is collected by the Medieval Studies subject specialist. The Jewish history of Italy is shared among the Italian, Medieval, Judaic Studies subject specialists.
  • Imprint Date: The collection is mainly composed of circulating materials. While retrospective scholarly materials published after 1800 are acquired according to research needs, the selection is focused on current imprints. Original manuscripts, materials published before 1800, and those considered valuable or requiring special handling are acquired very selectively and are housed in Special Collections at the John Hay Library where they do not circulate.
  • Geographical Range: The histories of Italy and other European countries (i.e. France, Spain and Austria) intersect at various points since the early modern period. Before the unification of the Italian states, histories are collected according to the various boundaries. After unification in 1870, the focus of the collection is national vs. regional, however for major historical events relating to what presently constitutes Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Liguria, Lombardia, Marche, Molise, Piemonte, Puglia, Sardegna, Sicilia, Toscana, Trentino-Alto Adige, Umbria, Valle d'Aosta, and Veneto, materials are collected selectively.
  • Types of Material Included: Circulating monographs form the core of the collection, however other materials such as serials, non-circulating monographs, and audiovisual and electronic resources are also collected.
  • Formats: The library acquires materials in all formats, with the exception of 8mm in the case of audiovisual items. The bulk of the collection is print-based (monographs and serials), however microfilm is still purchased for periodical archives, pamphlet collections and pre-twentieth century publications. Materials in electronic formats such as CD-ROM, DVD, DVD-ROM and online access are acquired according to their licensing agreements and their compatibility with the library's system. Audiovisual materials are purchased on video, or, preferably, DVD format. All English-language films purchased for this collection are housed at Media Services in the Sciences Library, while Spanish-language films are housed in the Language Resource Center. Music CDs are for the most part purchased by the Music Librarian and are housed at the Orwig Music Library.
  • Excluded: Introductory general-purpose textbooks whose primary function is instruction are out of the scope of this collection.

• Special Collections
  The John Hay Library holds a number of collections which contain books on Italian History published in the 16th-18th century.
  
  LC Starred Books is the general collection of the John Hay Library. To see a selection of Italian history titles from this collection click here.

  Niccolo Macchiavelli Collection: a major collection of first and early editions of Machiavelli, dating from 1523, with an emphasis upon his political and historical works. Acquired by purchase in 1990. Interfiled with LC Starred Books. To see a selection of titles from this collection click here.

  Chambers Dante Collection: approximately 1,700 volumes was formed by the English Scholar William F. Chambers during a long residence in Florence. The collection was donated to Brown by Henry D. Sharpe (Brown 1894), through the intercession of Prof. Courtney Langdon. The collection's strengths are in scholarly editions of the 15th through the 19th centuries of Dante's works, in particular the Divine Comedy, commentaries (chiefly in Italian), translations, and other reference, biographical and historical works. Prof. Langdon's literary and critical manuscripts have been added to the collection. To see a selection of titles from this collection click here.

  Lownes History of Science Collection: The History of Science Collections encompass books and manuscripts dating from the late 15th to the mid 20th century. Particular strengths are in the history of mathematics and astronomy. There are editions of classical authors on mathematics and astronomy, sixteenth and seventeenth century astronomical tables, and fifteenth and sixteenth century editions of Latin translations of Arabic astronomical and astrological texts. They provide many of the works fundamental to the study of the exact sciences during the Renaissance. There are more than 4,000 significant works documenting the sciences in modern times, many of which were printed before 1800, beginning with the works of Galileo, Kepler, Tycho Brahe, Newton, and his followers. There are also early editions of works by Ampere, Francis Bacon, Boyle, Mme Curie, Einstein, Franklin, Helmholtz, von Humboldt, William James, Leibniz, Lyell, Maury, Napier, Pasteur, Priestly, and Vesalius. To see a selection of Italian titles from this collection click here.

  The Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection is the foremost American collection of material devoted to the history and iconography of soldiers and soldiering, and is one of the world's largest collections devoted to the study of military and naval uniforms. Formed over a period of forty years by the late Mrs. John Nicholas Brown (1906-1985), it comprises approximately 12,000 printed books, 18,000 albums, sketchbooks, scrapbooks and portfolios, (containing thousands of prints and drawings), and over 13,000 individual prints, drawings and water-colors as well as a collection of 5,000 miniature lead soldiers.
  Materials on Italy focus primarily on the Napoleonic period and the Risorgimento. To see a selection of Italian history titles from this collection click here.

  

• Microfilm
  The Harvard Risorgimento Preservation Microfilm Project is the largest set of microform materials for Italian Modern History at Brown University Library. The collection is a reproduction of approx. 15,000 originals at the Widener Library of Harvard University. The Risorgimento (“Rising Again”) refers to the 19th century ideological and literary movement that helped to arouse Italian national consciousness and culminated with the establishment of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. To see the list titles for this collection click here.

• Serials
  The Library subscribes to the Italian daily newspapers Corriere della sera and La Stampa but does not keep backfiles. The Library also has a subscription to L'osservatore romano and has the archive on CD-ROM for the years 1861-1996.

  Current serial subscriptions are very selective for this subject.

  Archivio della Societá romana di storia patria (1878-)

  Archivio storico italiano (1842-)

  Archivio storico Lombardo (1887-)

  Archivio veneto, a cura della R. Deputazione di storia patria per le Venezie (1871-)

  Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome. Italie et Méditerranée (1990-)

  Rassegna storica del Risorgimento : organo della Societá nazionale per la storia del Risorgimento italiano (1914-)

  Rivista storica italiana (1896-)

  Roma moderna e contemporanea (2004-)

  Schifanoia : notizie dell'Istituto di studi rinascimentali di Ferrara (1986-)

  Società [sic] e storia (1978-)

  Studi storici (1959-)

  Other serial titles, now ceased or cancelled, that relevant to this subject include:

  Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome. Moyen age, temps modernes (1971-1988)

  Quaderni storici delle Marche (1968-1969)

  Studi storici; periodico trimestrale (1892-1914)

  Yearbook of Italian studies (1971-1996)

• Collecting Levels

  ---

  Search Josiah	Boston Library Consortium	Worldcat
  Suggest a Purchase	Contact a Selector	Questions/Comments
  Collection Policy Home	Scholarly Resources	Library Home

  ---

  
  This page was last updated on: Friday, 22-Jun-2007 16:06:08 EDT.
  © 2000, Brown University Library. All rights reserved.
  You are the 916th visitor to this page.