The Library - Instituto Feltrinelli: The physiognomy of the collections

Abstract

This article proposes a definition of what a documentary collection means, before going into the description and development of the main collections of the Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Foundation in Milan. It then gives a brief description of Feltrinelli's documentary heritage from the time of its establishment in 1949 until its first closure in August 1964. In order to carry out this task, the article explains which were the fields of culture and research in relation to which Giangiacomo Feltrinelli himself and his team were positioned between the late 1940s and the early 1960s. Finally, it highlights which are the collections that mark the "cultural personality" of this entity from the collections it consolidates in the period considered. In this development, the text emphasizes different dimensions of the cultural intervention carried out by a documentation center when building documentary collections for consultation.