Natalino Sapegno's library: a "heritage of humanity and culture"

Abstract

The books and archive of the famous literary critic Natalino Sapegno (1901–1990) have been recently acquired by the Natalino Sapegno Foundation and are now positioned in the “Tour de l’Archet” of Morgex, Aosta Valley. The financial contribution of San Paolo’s Bank allowed the Foundation to catalogue nearly 18.000 volumes that can now be consulted on the website www.sapegno.it. The software BookMarkWeb made it possible to enhance the peculiarities of the fund and to give prominence to the notes related to the copy, reporting inscriptions, interleaved materials, references to Sapegno's extensive bibliography and various information that allow the books to dialogue with the archive – in addition to attachments as scans, transcriptions of letters addressed to Natalino Sapegno, his own reviews of the library's books etc. Several initiatives are scheduled in order to enhance the fund – donated in 1990 by Sapegno to his native region and now accessible to scholars: it will be connected to other XX century's archives, and a number of exhibitions and didactic projects will be organized in order to promote book and reading and to sensitize public awareness of the relationship between contents and tangible materials.