The entrance to the Malatestiana Ragazzi on via Montalti is now marked by a new plaque which restores the section’s dedication to Adamo Bettini. The plaque offers the opportunity to bring to light the memory of an important history of the city which, starting from the end of 1969, began a discussion regarding the opening of a children’s book section in the library.
Since 1973
The new service was designed, set up and inaugurated between 1973 and 1976. The first headquarters was temporary and external to the Malatestiana, but very close to it, at number 14 of via Chiaramonti, in the premises owned by the brothers Piero and Giovanni Bettini, who kept their initial promise to donate a suitable fund of books and furniture to start the new service. The two cultured booksellers contributed significantly to the foundation of the children’s section of the Malatestiana library, which was therefore named in memory of their father Adamo, a tireless cultural promoter, as well as a printer and bookseller. “In the mid-70s – he remembers today Piero Bettini – with the aim of remembering our father we donated the Adamo Bettini Children’s Library to the Municipality. For our father studying was a right, not a duty, also for this reason, over the years, thanks to his foresight, he has helped many families who did not have the opportunity to approach reading, very often even giving books as gifts. The memory of her lives on today, every day, in the premises of the Malatestiana Ragazzi, an open and inclusive place designed for families and very young children”.
The 1776 volumes donated (at the time a very respectable number, compared to similar realities in our country) of the nascent children’s library were the cornerstone of a reference place for the city of Cesena and of an important service that has been 80 found space in the magnificent rooms of the Cloister of San Francesco and in 2013 it became an integral part of the Grande Malatestiana. A place of reading, inclusion and multiculturalism, the Malatestiana Ragazzi is today one of the main services of the Malatestiana and confirms itself as a point of reference for very young people and families with its 57,000 document loans per year and a busy program of appointments with readings at loud voice and workshops and events, which enliven its lively spaces on a weekly basis.
Paolo Zanfini, scientific director of the Malatestiana Library, and Piero Bettini, son of Adamo Bettini
