The Challenges of Research in Italy
Italy has a uniquely rich and diverse cultural heritage: aside from museums and archaeological sites, its archival heritage is enormous, if not unparalleled. In addition to the State Archives, there are dozens of ecclesiastical archives, not to mention private archives, mostly belonging to noble families, which in many cases are accessible, to a certain degree. The same can be said for the thousands of libraries: national, municipal, diocesan, and monastic libraries… They all contribute to the conservation of an invaluable book and manuscript heritage. In short, Italy could arguably be seen as the scholar’s paradise, due to the wealth of information that can be drawn from these countless sources.
However, many scholars know that carrying out research is not always a smooth sail. This is especially true for research carried out in Italy. This is mostly due to the constant budget cuts to the cultural-heritage sector, which do not always allow for archives and libraries to provide scholars with adequate support, not only in terms of facilities and technology, but also —and more simply— in terms of staffing. Indeed, these chronic budget issues make it challenging for the Ministry of Cultural Heritage to replace those who retire with the same number of new hires. The case of the Biblioteca Braidense in Milan is a very fitting example: the celebrated library, which is connected to the renowned Pinacoteca di Brera, is down to just two librarians (from the twenty-two it had in 2005 — see here). Then, there is the issue of conservation: the Archivio di Stato di Firenze, for example, still holds a significant number of manuscripts recovered from the disastrous flood of 1966 that are yet to be restored. A lot has been done in these past 55 years, but there is still a lot pending. As far as state archives are concerned, many rely on contractor companies that are in charge of collecting relevant documents at the scholars’ requests. Always due to budget cuts (hiring a contractor is cheaper than paying regular salaries to a number of employees), the people working for these contractor companies are paid —or rather underpaid— to collect documents only a few times a day. This all boils down to scholars being able to only access roughly 3 to 5 documents per day (depending on the institution). This means that simple research projects can drag on for a very long time, making it almost impossible for most researchers to stretch their research trips for the necessary amount of time. Furthermore, when compared to the overall amount of material, only a very small fraction of the Italian archival heritage has been digitised, making remote access extremely difficult.
The Covid-19 pandemic did not make things easier. Much like any other country, before the pandemic, archives and libraries had a walk-in policy, but due to the epidemic, bookings became necessary and access was restricted to a small number of people, to avoid overcrowding. This added further hurdles to an already difficult situation. Indeed, in some instances, appointments were given several months apart! However, at the time of writing, seen as the covid situation in Italy is still relatively under control due to the high number of vaccinations, booking an access to archives is not the nightmare it used to be until just a few months ago, because reading rooms are now allowed to be at full capacity. Additionally, in some cases there may also be a language barrier as not all employees are necessarily fluent in English and, conversely, not all scholars are fluent in Italian.
These are just some of the reasons why I decided to start Archivitaly (www.archivitaly.it): to support scholars by providing research services in Italian archives and libraries. As an Italian scholar myself, I know how difficult researching in Italy can sometimes be, and throughout the years I have often had fellow scholars ask for my help in many ways: from looking for a specific archival document, or maybe carrying out a more general research, to looking for a book and taking pictures of a number of pages needed to finish a paper, to taking photos of this or that artwork, not to mention transcribing documents from old Italian and/or Latin, and even translating said documents into English.
When covid hit the scholarly and curatorial community hard (myself included), many of my fellow colleagues and friends complained about how their whole schedule had been completely disrupted and that they feared for their jobs / promotions / funding… This was an unbearable situation in an already impossible one. This is when I thought I should take action and start a company that could help scholars achieve their research and publication goals, no matter the restrictions and difficulties that we were all facing.
Researching and publishing require a lot of work and encountering all kinds of hurdles at every turn does not help with focus and motivation. Currently, covid is the main cause of disruption with research and publication schedules, but before then, there were other, more ‘bureaucratic’ issues, such as scarce travel funds, conflicting schedules, general workload, etc. This is where we can come in and support the academic community by assisting them with completing their projects. Our team is made of professional archivists, palaeographers and scholars specialising in several fields. Being academics ourselves, we know how crucial confidentiality is when new research is being carried out, which is why our work is covered by professional confidentality.
So far, we have been quite busy assisting the scholarly community with research throughout the country, and we are proud to say that the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic! If you are in need of help with research in the most beautiful country in the world, don’t hesitate to get in touch!
