On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his death, the Opera della Primaziale Pisana celebrates Francesco Bonaini (1806-1874) with an international conference entitled Francesco Bonaini and the Italian archives (1874-2024) from 21 to 23 November 2024.
Archivist, librarian, historian, university lecturer, editor of sources: Bonaini is considered as one of the founders of the modern national archival system, Imprinting an indelible trace in the history of the discipline and becoming a reference point in the panorama in Italy and abroad. Scholar of very high profile and intimately linked to the city of Pisa - to him, for example, we owe the edition of the unpublished Statutes of the city of Pisa from the 12th to the 14th century along with fundamental chronicles such as the Vetus chronicon pisanum del Maragone - so much that, In December 1874, the City of Pisa and the Opera della Primaziale decided to welcome their remains in that great city pantheon which is the monumental Camposanto of Piazza dei Miracoli.
The conference, organized by the scientific committee composed of Andrea Giorgi (University of Trento), Leonardo Mineo (University of Turin), Cristina Moro (University of Pisa), Stefano Moscadelli (University of Siena) and Manuel Rossi (Opera della Primaziale Pisana), sees the collaboration and patronage of numerous bodies including the City of Pisa, the General Directorate for Archives and the State Archive of Pisa, which Bonaini himself was founder.
The works will start on Thursday, November 21 at 14.30 at the Auditorium of the Opera della Primaziale (Piazza Arcivescovado) with greetings from President Andrea Maestrelli, Councillor Filippo Bedini and General Director Archives Antonio Tarasco. In the three days, the figure of the scholar will be reconstructed also taking into account his national and international reports, to then investigate the results of his work in the long term.
The days will be divided into four sections in which individual case studies will alternate with framework interventions. In the first two sessions, the biographical events will be focused through the many professional, learned and scientific interests of Bonaini between Pisa, Tuscany and the newly born national state. The third and fourth sessions will be dedicated to the analysis of the results of the main cultural and scientific innovation - the so-called «historical method», still today at the basis of archival studies - in Italy and abroad. Finally, the conference will conclude with a round table discussion attended by some of the leading scholars and archivists.
THURSDAY, 21 NOVEMBER
INSTITUTIONAL GREETINGS - Auditorium G. Toniolo
14.00
Andrea Maestrelli - President of the Opera of the Primatiale Pisana
Michele Conti - Mayor of Pisa
Antonio Tarasco - Ministry of Culture, Director General Archivi
I SESSION - Auditorium G. Toniolo
FRANCESCO BONAINI IN HIS OWN TIME
Chairman: Alberto Mario Banti - University of Pisa
- 14.30 - For a biography of Francesco Bonaini
Andrea Giorgi - University of Trento
Stefano Moscadelli - University of Siena - 15.00 - Francesco Bonaini director of the University Library of Pisa
Cristina Moro - University of Pisa - 15.30 - Francesco Bonaini editor of sources
Antonio Olivieri - University of Turin - 16.00 - Francesco Bonaini, the «Italian Historical Archive» and the Tuscan Deputation
Giuliano Pinto - Deputation of Homeland History for Tuscany - 16.30 - Break
- 17.00 - From Pisa to Florence, via Perugia: how Francesco Bonaini arrived at the archives (1848-1852)
Stefano Vitali - former Ministry of Culture - 17.30 - Set up the memory. Bonaini and the case pisano
Manuel Rossi - Opera della Primaziale Pisana - 18.00 - The archive of the archivist. The papers of Francesco Bonaini
Claudia Borgia - Superintendent of Archival and Bibliographic Studies in Tuscany
FRIDAY, 22 NOVEMBER
II SESSION - Pisa State Archives
BONAINI AND THE APPLICATION OF THE HISTORICAL METHOD
Chairwoman: Eugenia Valacchi - Superintendence of Archival and Bibliographic Archives of Tuscany
- 9.00 - Before Bonaini. The inventories of the archives of the communities in Tuscany of the Restoration
Carlo Vivoli - History and city, OdV Pistoia - 9.30 - Cultural experiences and networks of relations of Francesco Bonaini in Umbria and the Marche
Francesco Pirani - University of Macerata - 10.00 - Francesco Bonaini and «The archives of the provinces of Emilia»
Enrico Angiolini - Society of Studies Romagnoli - 10.30 - The «first of those summs»: Bonaini and the historical method at the State Archives of Bologna. From Carlo Malagola to Giorgio Cencetti
Massimo Giansante - Deputation of Homeland History for the provinces - 11.00 - Break
- 11.30 - Between Piedmont and Tuscany. At the dawn of the national archival system
Leonardo Mineo - University of Turin - 12.00 - Francesco Bonaini e Salvatore Bongi: a archival partnership
Annantonia Martorano - University of Florence - 12.30 - Antonio Panella and the canonization of the historical method
Francesca Klein, Francesco Martelli - former Ministry of Culture
III SESSION - Auditorium G. Toniolo
CONTINUITY AND DISCONTINUITY OF THE HISTORICAL METHOD. A NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Chairwoman: Paola D'Orsi - State Archives of Florence
- 14.30 - Forget Bonaini. The historical method in the reworking of the so-called Roman Archival School
Raffaele Pittella - University of Rome - 15.00 - Disconnections archival: the Peronian archives to the test of the method of historical ordering
Marco Lanzini - Ca' Foscari University of Venice - 15.30 - Francesco Bonaini and the Ligurian archivists between travels and correspondence
Stefano Gardini - University of Genoa - 16.00 - Francesco Bonaini and the «archivii napolitani»
Antonella Venezia - University of Naples Federico II - 16.30 - Break
- 17.00 - The historical method and archives in Sardinia between Otto and twentieth century. First reflections
Andrea Pergola - University of Cagliari - 17.30 - «The ancient Venetian archives were always carefully ordered according to their primitive constitution». The historical method in the face of the archival tradition of Venice
Stefano Talamini - University of Trento - 18.00 - In the absence of the historical method: some reflections on the organization between the nineteenth and twentieth century of the funds of the State Archives of Bolzano
Rossella Ioppi - Ministry of Culture
SATURDAY 23 NOVEMBER
IV SESSION - Auditorium G. Toniolo
AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Chairman: Fulvio Conti - University of Florence
- 9.00 - The archives in France in 1875
Olivier Poncet - École nationale des chartes, Paris - 9.30 - Francesco Bonaini and the historians of the medieval empire: Johann Fr. Böhmer, Julius Ficker, Wilhelm von Giesebrecht
Daniela Rando - University of Pavia - 10.00 - The Pluralization of Contexts. Archival Description in the Age of Semantic Technology
Philipp Messner - Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW - 10.30 - From pragmatism to theory. The development of the historical method in the Netherlands in the nineteenth century
Peter Horsman - National Archives of the Netherlands
ROUND TABLE
BONAINI TODAY. AN OPEN PROBLEM
Chair: Fulvio Conti - University of Florence
- 11.30 - 13.00
Giorgetta Bonfiglio Dosio - University of Padua
Sabrina Mingarelli - Ministry of Culture
Giovanni Paoloni - Sapienza - University of Rome
Diana Toccafondi - Scientific and Technical Committee for the Archives - MiC
Federico Valacchi - University of Macerata
Gian Maria Varanini - University of Verona
