Pisa, 12 June 2024 – The transfer of the book collection belonging to the Scuola Normale Superiore to the Library of the Scuola Normale Superiore has been completed. Professor Colette Bozzo Dufour, former professor of History of Medieval Art at the University of Genoa, who passed away in 2020, whose studies on the Icon of the Sacred Face and on the Porta Soprana of Genoa and, more widely, on Roman sarcophagi, sculpture early medieval, the reuse of ancient marbles in medieval monuments and Romanesque architecture.
Composed of approximately 8000 volumes mainly on medieval history and history of medieval art, with relevant sections of studies also on prehistory and rock art, archeology and anthropology, the fund was donated by the Edoardo Garrone Foundation, which has always been involved in training projects and cultural promotion dedicated to younger people, which fully supported the costs of moving and cataloging the book material. Guaranteeing the use of the fund, avoiding its dispersion and entrusting its care to an institution capable of valorising it and making it available in a dynamic context open to young generations: this is the will expressed by Professor Bozzo Dufour in the act of donating her funds texts at the Edoardo Garrone Foundation.
To fully realize it, the Genoese foundation chose the Scuola Normale by virtue of its library’s long tradition in the management and valorisation of author libraries and archives (among the approximately sixty preserved book collections are those donated by scholars such as Barbi, Pasquali , Garin, Timpanaro, Cantimori, Momigliano and many others). The cataloging of the collection was entrusted to the experience and professionalism of CAeB – Archival and library cooperative.
This is a considerable enrichment for the Library of the Normale, both in quantitative terms and for the quality of the publications acquired, in particular in the field of early Christian, Romanesque and Byzantine art, as well as iconography and the history of architecture, of urban planning and sculpture. The collection is characterized by a broad geographical coverage, with a particular specialization on Genoa and Liguria, Piedmont and France. There are many monographs on individual Genoese and Ligurian artists, or in any case linked to Genoa and Liguria, from all eras, with a conspicuous representation of the Baroque, 19th and 20th centuries and a nucleus of over 500 volumes used by the professor in the last part of his life to start a study on “The hand in art”, that is, on the representation of the hand starting from rock carvings, in an interdisciplinary perspective.
Thanks to the collaboration between the Edoardo Garrone Foundation, the Library of the Scuola Normale Superiore and the CAeB Cooperative, the collection is now available to the scientific community of the School and to all Italian and foreign scholars who request it.
“We chose to allocate the Bozzo Dufour Fund to the Library of the Scuola Normale Superiore because, thanks to a fruitful collaboration from the first interlocutory stages, we saw the opportunity to insert the volumes in a welcoming and open context, dynamic, young and constantly in growth” comments Francesca Campora, general director of the Edoardo Garrone Foundation. “By doing so, we contribute to nourishing a prestigious national reality, generating value for the beneficiaries and making the most of the book material, starting from the meticulous cataloging work. A path made even more positive by the full support of the Professor’s heirs and family, eager to fully respect her wishes.”
“The acquisition of the Bozzo Dufour fund is therefore the result of a very fruitful collaboration between different entities, which took into account on the one hand respect for the will of the donor, on the other the needs and policies of the Library, which accepted the donation only after a careful evaluation of its relevance to its own collections” concludes Enrico Martellini, director of the Library of the Scuola Normale Superiore. “The ways in which the project came to fruition constitute a virtuous example and a model of collaboration between public institutions and private entities, in which effective cooperation allowed the collection to be quickly made available to the scientific community”.
“The treatment of the Fund, which began at the end of 2022 and concluded in March 2024, was not limited to the cataloging of the volumes, some of which were of particular value, but also paid particular attention to the testimonials of study and research work such as underlining, signs in the margins of the text, handwritten notes, post-its and inserts” explains Laura Panzeri, president of the CAeB Cooperative. “Thanks to the help of the professor’s students and collaborators, a significant nucleus of volumes relating to the line of research was also identified ‘The hand in Art‘: an original theme, addressed with an interdisciplinary approach which includes, in addition to art history, archaeology, anthropology, medicine, astrology and biology and which, thanks to the recovery of the material collected by Professor Bozzo Dufour, can be explored in greater depth by researchers” .
