The Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, founded in 1949, is the most important labour history institution in Italy. Apart from documents on Italian left-wing political movements it has a large collection on the international labour movement. It holds 3,000 m of archives, 150,000 books, 17,000 serials and some 20,000 audiovisual items.
It is located at Via Romagnosi, 3, I-20121 Milano, tel 39-2-8693911, fax 86461855. Opening hours: Mon-Fri 13:30-17:30.
The library catalogue will be brought online in the near future. Send e-mail to fondfelt (at) imiucca.csi.unimi.it for more information.
some excerpts from a letter by John Sharpe for the PROMETHEUS RESEARCH LIBRARY to the French Spartacist group on the subject of archives (dated 19 July 1987), with enclosed excerpts from an earlier letter from France:
Italy
The main source is of course Feltrinelli. They have relatively little Trotskyist material, but are a major source for Comintern documents. It has not grown very much since the 60's-- not since old man Feltrinelli became a supporter of the Red Brigades shortly before his death.
In addition, the town of Follonica has been sponsoring Trotsky symposia. They also have an archives, but I have no idea how substantial it is.
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Last updated 15 May 1998