Special Collections
Carlo Antognini
1. GENERAL INFORMATION
1.1 Library
Biblioteca della Fondazione Carlo e Marise Bo per la Letteratura Europea Moderna e Contemporanea
1.2 Collection name
Carlo Antognini
1.3 Biographical notes
Carlo Antognini was born in Ancona on August 9, 1937. Due to an accident he suffered at a young age, he was confined to his room: there, by himself, he developed a passion for European and world literature, specifically Anglo-American literature. It was thanks to his extensive reading that from 1964 he embarked on a career as a literary critic for the newspaper “L’Avvenire d’Italia”. From that moment on he also contributed to various magazines, journals, and newspapers, including “La Fiera letteraria”, “Persona”, “Nac”, “D’Ars International”, “Oggi e domani”, “Arte 2000”, “Egolalia”, “Il Leopardi”, “Azimut”, “Ancona provincia”, “Il Marchigiano”, “Corriere Adriatico”, “L'Osservatore romano”, “Avvenire”.
For twelve years he hosted the radio program “Il libro della settimana” for the Marche region Rai station. In response to Carlo Bo’s criticism (“Le Marche e la cultura” in “L'approdo letterario”, 1961) of the immobility of the cultural situation in the Marche region, Antognini focused his thoughts on the local cultural values present in Ancona and the Marche. He highlighted a rich but fragmented panorama of cultural experiences, underlining the need for the region to create cultural spaces meant to unify them. As a step forward towards this cohesive cultural landscape, through a strict selection he compiled the main poetic and narrative works of regional writers in two pioneering anthologies. The first, “Poeti marchigiani del ’900”, with a preface by Valerio Volpini, was published in 1965: it included works by twenty-three poets selected for their expressive intensity and documentation of the state of Marche poetry. The second anthology, “Scrittori marchigiani del Novecento”, introduced by Carlo Bo, was divided into two volumes, one dedicated to prose writers and the other to poets. By comparing and analysing the texts, he found numerous common elements among the authors, so that he could recognize a distinct literary line of the Marche region (which he called “marchigianità”), characterized not much by stylistic homogeneity but by a shared inspiration coming from contemplation of the landscape. He found the same common ground among painters, sculptors, and engravers from Marche. He decided to bring them together for the first time in an exhibition held in Jesi in 1974, “Marche Arte ’74”. This cultural operation peaked in the foundation of L’Astrogallo art editions, that he directed as an entrepreneur willing to make the works of emerging Marche writers and artists (like Franco Scataglini) as much as those worthy of recovery (like Giulio Grimaldi e Olimpo da Sassoferrato) accessible to a broader public in an elegant and graphically polished editorial format. The publishing house, founded in 1973, had two phases: the first (1973-1977) published 18 works, edited by the Antognini himself; the second phase (1977-2002) took place after Antognini’s death with the publishing of another 13 works, under the supervision of his sister, Fiorisa Antognini.
Carlo Antognini’s activities gave birth to a new cultural era in the Marche, bringing together artists and writers who had previously worked in isolation. This led to the creation of many literary and artistic journals, radio programs, conferences, and debates, especially in the 1970s and 1980s. His concept of a Marche literary line also began a debate on the topic that continues to this day. He died in Ancona on February 26, 1977, at the age of forty, due to deteriorating health conditions.
(Biography by Gabriele Ciceroni)
1.4 Date and methods of acquisition
The collection was donated by Carlo’s sister, Ms. Fiorisa Antognini, through a donation letter dated December 14, 2017, addressed to the Magnificent Rector of the University of Urbino, Vilberto Stocchi. It was then accepted by the University (resolution of the Board of Directors no. 25/2018 of February 23, 2018). In November 2018, the collection was transferred to the University.
1.5 Collection history
The collection holds of Carlo Antognini’s personal library, the one he kept in his house in Ancona. Some photographs, available on the Sanzio Digital Heritage platform, show to the original arrangement of the bookshelves. The collection is now located in a dedicated room on the second floor of Palazzo Passionei, the headquarters of the Carlo and Marise Bo Foundation.
1.6 Collection increase
No further material is expected to be added to the collection.
1.7 Collection indexing
The collection was given to the University without any kind of documentation.
Now the catalogue is available for consultation:
on the National Library System
on the Polo SBN Marche Nord
on the online catalogue of the University of Urbino's Settore Bibliotecario d'Ateneo
and on the online catalogue of Biblioteca della Fondazione Carlo e Marise Bo per la Letteratura Europea Moderna e Contemporanea
1.8 Collection accessibility
The collection, catalogued and made available to the public, can be accessed online and on open shelves.
2. DESCRIPTION
2.1 Extent
The collection holds of over 2200 volumes: they show the cultural interests of their former owner, with a focus on Marche, Italian, English, and American literature. There is also a substantial section on local art.
2.2 Description identifier, organization, and placement
The collection is clearly recognizable from the other collections in the library and is divided into five sections, with the first and fifth representing the richest and most significant areas:
1) Literature, Theater, and Art from Marche region
2) Classical and Italian Literature
3) European and Non-European Literature
4) Philosophy, Psychology, Theology, History
5) Edizioni L'Astrogallo and Art History
2.3 State of conservation
Well preserved.
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY AND DOCUMENTATION
3.1 Bibliography and documentation
No documents have been published regarding the collection.
About Carlo Antognini:
Giancarlo Galeazzi, Come un volo di rondini, presentation by Carlo Bo, Ancona, L'Astrogallo, 1980
Gabriele Ciceroni, La stanza dell'infinito: Carlo Antognini e la cultura marchigiana del Novecento, preface by Massimo Raffaeli, Ancona, Il lavoro editoriale, 2017
About L’Astrogallo:
Edizioni L'Astrogallo, Jesi, Studio d'arte L'asterisco, 1989
Edizioni l'Astrogallo fondate da Carlo Antognini nel 1973, Ancona, Edizioni l'Astrogallo, 1997
Marcello Venturoli, Lettere alla postina, introduction by Marcello Venturoli, with four illustration by Renzo Vespignani, Ancona, L'Astrogallo, 2002
4. NOTES
4.1 Special notes and reports
Within the volumes, about 100 catalogues and brochures of exhibitions and artists have been found, now kept together with the material and described on the Sanzio Digital Heritage platform.
PERMALINK TO THE CATALOGUE
COMPLIER'S NAME
Elena Baldoni