The Gabinetto Scientifico Letterario G. P. Vieusseux, founded in 1819 by Giovan Pietro Vieusseux, a merchant and publisher from Geneva, is a library in Florence, Italy. It played a vital role in linking the culture of Italy with that of other European countries in the 19th century, and also became one of the chief reference points for the Risorgimento movement.
It began as a reading room that provided leading European periodicals for Florentines and visitors from abroad in a setting that encouraged conversation and the exchange of ideas. A circulating library with the latest publications in Italian, French and English was installed next to the reading room.
Giacomo Leopardi and Alessandro Manzoni frequented the Gabinetto Vieusseux when they were in Florence, as did Stendhal, Schopenhauer, J. F. Cooper, Thackeray, Dostoevsky, George Gissing, Mark Twain, Émile Zola, André Gide, Kipling, Aldous Huxley and D. H. Lawrence. The institute was run privately by the Vieusseux family until 1919 when it became a foundation with a governing body headed by the Mayor of Florence or one of his delegates.
Its work continued in the 20th century under the direction of distinguished men of letters such as Bonaventura Tecchi, Eugenio Montale and, for forty years, Alessandro Bonsanti, who set up three new departments: the Laboratory for the conservation of books damaged in the 1966 flood, the Centro Romantico, specializing in studies in romanticism and the 19th century, and the Archivio Contemporaneo, now named after Bonsanti, which houses manuscripts, private papers and private libraries donated by leading figures in 20th-century culture. The library continues to expand according to the criteria laid down by its founder.
The institute also organizes meetings, conferences and exhibitions throughout the year; in 1995 the quarterly review founded by Bonsanti in 1966 “Antologia Vieusseux” (new series) resumed publication.
Library
The Library’s Holdings
The cosmopolitan character of this library during the 19th century, expressed in its two sections, “lending library” and the reading room for journals, remains its unique feature even today, especially for the nature of the collection. Today the library’s collection, expanded through acquisition and numerous donations, amounts to about 300,000 monographs in several languages (Italian, French, English, and some sources in German), offering today full documentation of 19th- and 20th-century literature in the original language and in translation, travel accounts, essays on cultural history of the 19th and 20th centuries, and biographies. The tradition of leisure reading, however, is still provided for with a large collection of detective stories and best-sellers of various genres. In total there are about 2,700 journals, in several languages, of which nearly 600 are from the 19th century; there are about 350 currently circulation journals available.
Alessandro Bonsanti Contemporary Archives
In October 1975 the Contemporary Archives opened in the Gabinetto G.P. Vieusseux under the leadership its director at the time, Alessandro Bonsanti, to whom the archives are now dedicated.
Established with the principal goal of collecting diverse material related to influential contemporary figures, the Archives, housed in the beautiful 14th-century rooms of the city-owned Palazzo Corsini Suarez, distinguishes itself in the landscape of the many institutes established because of its aim to conserve the multi-faceted nature of disciplines of study, and therefore of those disciplines’ documentation. This documentation ranges from creative literature (narrative and poetry) to literary criticism, from music to theater, from architecture to painting, from photographs to art criticism.
Currently the Archives house more than 130 “funds,” or collections related to individual authors, in total more than 500,000 documents and 70,000 volumes added by donation, deposit, and loan. Once organized and inventoried, these collections are available to the public according to the precise rules intended to protect this important cultural resource.
Conditions for access
Consultation is available by appointment and requires a letter of introduction for students.