On Tuesday 12 June, the catalogue “For fun and for real. Recreational and literary books of  Indire’s antique children’s book collection” will be presented in Florence at the Archival Superintendency for Tuscany (via de’ Ginori 7, h 4pm).

The publication was compiled by Pamela Giorgi, Irene Zoppi and Marta Zangheri, and catalogues the about 550 volumes and the 58 periodicals (including more than 3thousand issues) published between the beginning of 1800 and the first half of 1900 and included in Indire’s antique children’s book collection,  an almost unique reality in Italy, testifying to the birth and development of children’s literature and publishing houses specialised in the sector.

The presentation will be introduced by Diana Marta Toccafondi, responsible of the Archival Superintendency for Tuscany. Pamela Giorgi is going to trace back the process of valorisation of indire’s documentary and bibliographical heritage trying to identify possible didactical paths. Marta Zangheri and  Irene Zoppi are going to present the catalogue and Carla Ida Salviati, history of publishing scholar, is going to conclude the event with a speech on the future of youth literature.                                                                                                                                  

Indire’s antique children’s book collection is a valuable segment of the children’s literature section including about 40,000 volumes belonging to a larger bibliographic collection made up of more than 80,000 volumes concerning schools and pedagogy. The cataloguing of the antique book collection is part of the requalification process of the entire Indire’s bibliographical-documentary legacy. Hopefully, this first classification step will be only the first of a series of activities favouring its valorisation and knowledge also through the online publication of the institute’s entire book heritage.

Useful links:

• The history of Indire
• Indire’s historical heritage
• Indire’s book heritage