Historical Archives of the Technology Library

The photographic collection of the Agriculture Library consists of 23 photographic albums received from the Library by the former Institute of Agricultural Economics. Most of the albums date back to the 1920s/1930s, and they are probably related to the figure of Arrigo Serpieri (1877-1960), professor of agrarian economics at the University of Florence, of which he was rector and whose book collection is kept at the Agriculture Library branch.

Some albums document reclamation works carried out in the Italian territory in the Fascist period (1922-1943), others testify to interventions of river regimentation, construction of aqueducts, inaugurations. Of particular interest is the album documenting the construction of the bridge on the lagoon for the reunification of Venice to the mainland (1931-1933)

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• Chartae description Agriculture Library Photographic Archive

• Chartae description Lando Bartoli

• Chartae description Roberto Berardi

Donated in 1978 by the wife of Alfredo D'Arbela, Marianna Casati D'Arbela, these archive collect about eighty volumes, and three boxes of various documents (1910-1960): journal issues, working documents, iconographic material, letters, documentation relating to the activity of D'Arbela as a member of the UIC (Union Internationale des Chemins-de-fer), the International Union of Railways.

• Chartae description Alfredo D'Arbela

Gianfranco Di Pietro (1935), professor at the University of Florence, was student and then assistant of Edoardo Detti. Di Pietro worked in particular on historical town centers, producing several urban plans (Lugo, Sansepolcro, Montevarchi, San Giovanni Valdarno, Arezzo, etc.).

As an urban planner, he has worked in municipal and regional planning offices (from Pietrasanta to Anghiari, to the Florentine metro area and the provinces of Siena and Arezzo) and designed several residential neighborhoods. He participated (with Edoardo Detti and Vittorio Gregotti) to the International Competition for the renovation of the University of Florence (1st place) and realized projects for the Sciences Campus of the University of Florence and multifunctional centre in Castello.

Di Pietro's archives, donated in 2013, consist of 205 folders including preparatory material relating to his professional activity and 65 tubes containing his drawings.

Pre-catalogued with a preliminary list of contents.

• Chartae description Dante Enrico Fantappiè

• Chartae description Italo Gamberini

Archives donated in 1990 and consisting of documentation relating to the professional activity and teaching of Giuseppe Giorgio Gori. In specifics there are manuscripts, newspaper clippings, artwork and illustrations, videotapes of the years between 1934 and 1968, including 140 projects collected in 165 boxes.

An inventory of the archives is available as a published book.

• Chartae description Giuseppe Giorgio Gori

Lazlo Kovacs (1901-1976), a freelance architect active in Milan, has built many Milanese residences (including villa Guzzi, 1930) and numerous racecourses. He has long cooperated with the firm of Paolo Vietti Violi. The archives were donated by his daughters in 2013 and consist of drawings related to his professional activity.

Precatalogued with preliminary list of contents.

Pierluigi Nervi (1891-1979) engineer and inventor (he filed several patents in the field of reinforced concrete), starting from his first firm "Nervi and Bartoli Engineering Company" founded in 1932, in addition to the work on many traditional structures, Nervi dedicated himself to the study of futuristic buildings, which, over time, have established him to stardom in the international arena.

This archive, donated to the Technology Library in January 2010 by the architect Italo Domenico Castore, is composed of two sets of original plates: the first consists of 80 images of various size of the Cartiera Burgo in Mantua, the pool of the Naval Academy of Livorno and the hangars of Orvieto, Orbetello (GR) and Torre del Lago Puccini (LU) airports. The second part of the archives are made up of 4220 numbered photo negatives (rising to 6998 by counting the unnumbered duplicates), divided by format, most of them being film, others glass plates. The images are mostly black and white and give evidence of Nervi's projects covering a period from 1920 to 1980, including the municipal Sports Stadium in Florence, the first and second series of hangars, sports facilities for the 1960 Olympics Games in Rome, and the Paul VI Auditorium at the Vatican. There are also many lesser-known projects such as the multifunctional complex of the 'Good Hope Centre' in Cape Town in South Africa, the sports and the ice hockey halls for Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire (USA), the funeral chapel for the President of the Republic of the Ivory Coast S.E. Felix Houphouet Boigny in Yamoussoukro and the Italian Embassy in Brasilia.
The images are conserved in the Architecture Library and are available also in digital format.

These archives have been a source of information for the realization of a thesis as part of a PhD research project in Materials and Structures for Architecture by Claudia Sarri, titled "Compositional refinement and structural performance: the Sports Hall in Norfolk by Pier Luigi Nervi", XXIV cycle, years 2009/2011, National Central Library of Florence, location: TDR 130 01007, inventory: CFTD0018842 1 vol.

Chartae description Pierluigi Nervi

The archives were donated in 1972 and consist of 330 books, 55 magazines, 1,500 exhibition catalogs, catalogs of antiquarian booksellers, abstracts, pamphlets, manuscripts, notes, personal documents, architectural competitions, educational materials, students' essays, photographic material (plates and photographs), a collection of postcards and a collection of newspaper articles; the subjects are architecture and the decorative arts in Italy from 1903 to 1956.

Chartae description Roberto Papini

The collection was donated to the library in 1980 and consists of about 500 files relating to the professional activity of Marcello Piacentini containing documentation on competitions and architectural projects in which he participated (studies, sketches, final drawings of executed works, photographs, manuscripts of his publications and papers, magazine and newspaper abstracts) and a series of 2,500 small format items made up of notes, drawings and architectural studies, kept by Piacentini as a source of design ideas; the documents date to the years 1903-1960.

Chartae description Marcello Piacentini

• Chartae description Giuseppe Poggi

• Chartae description Francesco Rodolico

The archive of the Higher School of Architecture contains administrative and educational material from the Royal School of Architecture dating back to the 1930s, just before the establishement of the Faculty of Architecture (1936).

Pending reorganisation.

Collection donated between 1989 and 1990 and consisting of the correspondence and graphic design material of Luigi Vagnetti; the plates are grouped by project (120 projects) and divided by type (furniture, church, INAcasa, construction, urban, office, sports, religious, school, bridges). A printed catalogue is available for these archives.

• Chartae description Luigi Vagnetti

Archives donated to the library in 1984 and containing material related to the professional activity of Enzo Vannucci (1950-1982): 85 inserts, two cabinets of technical drawings, drawings, folders of blueprints, a few books on technical subjects.

• Chartae description Enzo Vannucci