The Archive
The Giovanni Testori Archive, declared by the Archival Superintendence Office to be “an asset of particularly important historical interest” (art. 13-14, Legislative Decree 41 of 22/1/2004), is kept at Casa Testori where the material, ordered and easily accessible, can be consulted in dedicated rooms. It is an artist’s archive but the wealth of material preserved follows his multidisciplinary nature as a writer, playwright, poet and art critic. A true Testori galaxy, in which all the elements that compose it intersect, enhancing each other.
The Archive preserves a copy of each of Giovanni Testori’s writings, published in volumes or periodicals, interviews he gave and transcripts of meetings and public debates. Copies of Testori’s letters sent and a small, but significant, nucleus of letters to Testori, received in the 1980s, have been collected. There are a number of handwritten notebooks and over ten thousand typewritten sheets, as well as autographed personal documents, theatre programmes, an important collection of thousands of photographs of works of art, theatre performances and photo reports dedicated to the writer. Finally, there are also books, essays and articles on Giovanni Testori’s life and work, including a collection of university and PhD theses.
There are more than 60 folders of documentary material, over 100 paintings and drawings, almost 6000 photographs and about 200 audio-video recordings.
Completing the collection is his Art Library, consisting of over 16.000 volumes.
The Archive and Library preserved at Casa Testori – with numerous rooms used as exhibition space – have made it a unique and strategic pole for knowledge, not only of the artist Giovanni Testori, but of 20th-century culture, at the centre of interest of scholars, PhD students, interns, schoolchildren and simple enthusiasts who frequent it daily.
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