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Ricerca per l'innovazione della scuola italiana

Historical archive

Indire is the oldest research institution of the Ministry of Education. It was founded in Florence in 1925. The Institute preserves a rich historical heritage dating back to the 19th and 20th centuries (about 95,000 documents and 14,000 photographs relating to the history of the Italian school system), which makes it one of the few archives specialized in Italy in the collection and enhancement of documentary material of historical-pedagogical interest.

albero patrimonio storico indire

The documentary heritage is made up of funds unrelated to the history of the institution, but closely connected to pedagogical issues, and is divided into:

  • 3 special funds linked to teaching: school materials, international school newspaper exhibition and drawing competitions;
  • 7 archives of historical personalities: Giuseppe Fanciulli, Luigi Bertelli, Arturo Linacher, Francesco Bettini, Giuseppe Lombardo Radice, Ottavio Gigli and Gianni Cavalcoli;
  • Twentieth-century Italian pedagogical archive: private papers, works and studies by 20th-century Italian pedagogues from the archive of the “Fazio-Allmayer” Foundation, donated to Indire in 2017 due to the explicit interest of Prof. Franco Cambi.
  • 5 family archives: Gizdulich, Farina, Grumelli, Sacchi-Simonetta and Neppi-Modona;
  • 1 didactic archive of the teacher Giuseppe Caputo with documentation from the “Antonio Meucci” secondary school of vocational training in Lastra a Signa, Florence.
  • A photographic archive of 14,000 historical images of school life from all over the country from the end of the 19th century to the 1960s.

Part of the documentary heritage is still kept in Gerini Palace, the fifteenth-century headquarters of Indire located in Florence’s historical centre.

Info e contatti

INDIRE, via M. Buonarroti 10 - 50122 Firenze

Telefono: 055.2380301

Email: archiviostorico@indire.it

Visite su appuntamento: dal lunedì al venerdì ore 8.00-13.00 ; 14.00–17.00