Luigi De Gregori

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Luigi De Gregori (born May 2, 1874 in Rome , † October 4, 1947 in Rome) was an Italian librarian .

He completed his studies at the Roman Sapienza in 1899 with a thesis on the epigrams of Dioscurides . He was unable to continue his Byzantine studies, however, after he started working in the library, following the example of his uncle Ignazio Giorgi . First he worked as a sub-librarian at the Roman National Library under its director Domenico Gnoli . From 1913 to 1921 he headed the library of the Ministry of Education. He was also entrusted with the administration of smaller libraries. From 1921 to 1925 he built the library for the Istituto di archeologia e storia dell'arte . He was also responsible for the book collections of the German Archaeological Institute , which had been confiscated and transported to Castel Sant'Angelo . In 1925 he was appointed a corresponding member of this institute. In December 1925 he was appointed head of the Biblioteca Casanatense , whose director from 1893 to 1923 was his uncle Ignazio Giorgi. He extended the opening times, had the magazines expanded and a vault set up for the manuscripts. At the same time, as soprintendente , he supervised the library system in Abruzzo and Molise . Against the backwardness and neglect of the Italian libraries, which he clearly recognized because of his experience abroad and his close contacts with foreign librarians such as William Warner Bishop (1871–1955) or the incunabula researcher Isak Collijn , he turned with numerous statements and pamphlets. He was one of the main organizers of the First World Congress of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), which took place in Rome in 1929.

In his scientific publications he turned to the topography of the city of Rome and the early history of book printing. In 1933 he organized an exhibition of quattrocentine (books printed in the 15th century) in the Casanatense . In 1936 he was transferred to the Ministry of Education as ispettore and handed over the management of the Casanatense. In 1939 he was given responsibility for protecting the valuable library holdings from the dangers of armed conflict, which forced him to make constant inspection trips in the years that followed. In January 1944, he had the most valuable manuscripts of the Roman state libraries transported from their alternative quarters in the Santa Scolastica monastery in Subiaco to the Biblioteca Vaticana , thus saving them from destruction, as the monastery was shortly afterwards destroyed in a bomb attack. The regular visits to the place where the first printer's workshop was established in Italy inspired him to investigate the origin of the oldest types of printing used there.

After the end of the war, the bomb damage suffered by libraries in northern Italy forced De Gregori to make multiple inspection trips. In Rome he arranged for the library of the Istituto di archeologia e storia dell'arte to be housed in the Palazzo Venezia , and in addition he was dedicated to securing and preparing the return of the libraries of German research institutes such as the Hertziana , the archaeological and historical institutes in Rome and of the Art History Institute in Florence . Although he was already ill at the beginning of 1947, he took over the management of the new Rivista delle biblioteche , in which he published his last essay, which presented a new professional profile of the librarian, who was not only supposed to take care of administration and personnel management, but also because of his education and research experience should be able to point the reader in the right direction in their research.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ I tipi sublacensi , in: Studi e ricerche sulla storia della stampa del Quattrocento , Milano 1942, pp. 47-61
  2. ↑ Il bibliotecario : In Rivista delle biblioteche I (1947), pp. 1-11

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personal data
SURNAME De Gregori, Luigi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian librarian
DATE OF BIRTH May 2, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Rome
DATE OF DEATH 4th October 1947
Place of death Rome