Italy’s Biography as a Nation
By Maria Lasella

The seven glass cases that comprise the current exhibit at the Italian American Museum, “An Exhibit of Selected Treasures,” on display through Dec. 31, 2004, reflect a telescopic view of pre-unified Italy from the time of Napoleon to Fascism. The exhibit offers visitors an extraordinarily quick and concise rendition of Italy’s biography as a nation through political, social and historic publications. For scholars, it is an unmatched discovery backed by hundreds if not thousands of other publications that are temporarily housed on bookshelves on the 17th floor at 28 West 44th St.

Less obviously, but no less significantly, this exhibit is a concrete collection of facts, figures and humanity that will supplement any Italophile’s insight into how Italy grew up and out. One case of Almanacs focus on the lives of Royalty, not unlike present-day slick, four-color renditions of tabloid magazines focused on celebrities. According to the curator of the exhibit, Professor Philip V. Cannistraro, “These are very rare little volumes and are really fun to read and not likely to be found in any other library in the United States.”
Because the exhibit is small in scale, it highlights major moments that can be committed to memory. Viewers can read about Italy’s transformation from an agrarian society in the 19th century simultaneously known for its majestic ancient history into a modern country whose meteoric rise among the top 10 industrial nations of the world is still being called nothing short of miraculous.
During its earliest days as a Kingdom for which unification was but a dream among visionaries in 1820, reports in the Giornale del Regno delle Due Sicilie, or the Journal of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies reveal how much this conglomerate of regions was conscious of the world outside itself, in particular, that young nation across the Atlantic. Opened to the news of Martedi or Monday, April 4, 1820, the international news of that day focuses on three items taking place in the United States, most significantly the controversial battle to include Missouri as a new state to the Union. The other items mention a court-martialed colonel in Pensacola, Florida and a silver mine in Ohio.
An entire exhibit could have been installed just focusing on Giuseppe Mazzini, that most fiery of champions for Italian nationalism. His deep commitment to this ideal began early with revolutionary doctrines that inspired a young generation that would follow in his footsteps fighting for the cause of unification. Unedited, raw documents are preserved and on display, too. Massimo D’Azeglio, a so-called moderate for unification who worked with Count Cavour is among the visionaries alongside Garibaldi, perhaps the most well known among Americans. Interestingly, Massimo D’Azeglio is also the name of a restaurant on Via Cavour, a stone’s throw from the Stazioni Termini. D’Azeglio also fought for the liberation of Italian Jews as early as the 1840s.
Cannistraro, whose photograph is also exhibited as he and a crew of friends and students walked off from the mother lode with the collection, said he was concerned the exhibit might be almost too scholarly, but there is plenty that is accessible and even entertaining for laypersons. The shipment of 436 boxes of books from Pietro and Luisa Saraceno’s personal collection represents the cornerstone of what Cannistraro hopes will become an important resource for scholars and students of Italian and world history. Of the more than 10,000 volumes, Cannistraro said, “Saraceno was a bibliophile and historian who perused catalogs from publishers to create his book collection the way others might create a valuable art collection.”
Saraceno stored the books in a huge apartment outside Rome where every room but the kitchen displayed books. “For us, this contribution was a coupe…no less than a national treasure,” says Cannistraro, which did not go completely unnoticed by the Italian government. Cannistraro’s own collection of 2 to 3,000 volumes on Fascism will someday enhance the Saraceno collection at the Calandra Institute.
Currently the Saraceno collection is being organized piece by piece: in alphabetical order and fortunately, the owner kept his own catalog system on CDs, making the daunting task, just a little easier. Other collections that will join this library include about 5,000 volumes focused on Italy’s left-wing politics from Professor John Cammett.
For those who are even remotely interested in the land of their ancestors and who might even be able to read a little Italian, a visit to the Italian American Museum and the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute/Queens College, is a must, if only to learn that the real heroes of Italy were not the navigators sent by Spain to conquer lands, but those who stayed behind generations later to build a nation.
The volumes will be made available on a non-lending basis to scholars, students and researchers. The Italian-American Museum is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, and by appointment; it is located at 28 West 44th St., 17th floor. Call 212-642-2020 or visit www.italianamericanmuseum.org.