The library
The library introduces itself
The Political Science Library, dedicated to the memory of Prof. Ettore Anchieri, currently occupies the ground floor, first floor and part of the second floor of Palazzo Dottori.
Today's arrangement is the result of various moves that began in 1964, when the building became the property of the University, thanks to the bequest of Senator Giovanni Milani and was chosen as the definitive seat of the Faculty of Political Science.
Since 1924, the year of its foundation, the Faculty had been housed in Palazzo Bo, in an arrangement that was described as ‘precarious’ both because it was strongly conditioned by the proximity of the Faculty of Law and because cohabitation was mutually ill-tolerated.
In November 1967, with the completion of work on the renovation of Palazzo Dottori, Political Science obtained its exclusive seat: Dean Anchieri was able to inaugurate the new spaces where, in addition to the classrooms for teaching and the lecturers' offices, the Faculty Library, located on the second floor, and the American Library, located on the mezzanine floor, also found suitable accommodation1.
In the early 2000s, the American Library2 was reorganised and absorbed into the Faculty Library: much of its material was moved to the New Legnaro Depot (a.k.a. NAL) where it can still be consulted today.
At the time of its establishment, the Faculty Library consisted of over 50,000 books; this original corpus was reorganised in the early 1970s by Paolo Selmi, a lecturer in the History of the Republic of Venice3: the collection was rearranged according to a classified arrangement scheme, whereby books from the same subject area were rationally placed one after the other, respecting the hierarchical criterion from general to particular.
The subject areas identified based on the Faculty's core subjects were: History, Political Science, Sociology and Economics.
Thus, for example, the location marking A identifies the subject area of History, the Roman numeral marker I identifies the History of Treaties,
the letter c identifies the History of International Treaties,
the final Arabic numeral is the ordinal within the section,
and the whole string looks like this A.I.c.56 which corresponds to the book
Collection of concordats on ecclesiastical matters between the Holy See and civil authorities.
This Classified Placement Scheme was used until 1972 and is still applied to the library's original collection of books.
Later, with the growth of the collections, which now number around 100,000 volumes, reasons of space and greater ease of reading for users recommended the adoption of the new bibliometric collocation, which is still in use today: books are placed on the shelves according to the department requesting their purchase and their format.
Thus, for example, the collocation marking SO identifies the subject area of Sociology, albeit in a very sketchy way, the letter E identifies the format of the book, i.e. its height in cm., the final Arabic numeral is the ordinal within the section, and the whole string looks like this SO.E.5625 which corresponds to the book
Single mothers: from Roman concubines to single mothers.
Throughout the years, the Library has always been involved in the sometimes turbulent life of the Faculty. This is borne out by some still clearly visible testimonies such as the mural in the Garden Room, created in the space that had previously been Prof. Sabino Acquaviva's study, and the newspaper library set up at the request of the Assembly of Political Science students at the end of the 1960s. Moreover, being «an organism that grows4», and therefore that changes, evolves, and adapts to the needs of its users, the library has faced important changes in its services to the public: if still in the Bulletin-Notices of the Faculty of Political Science of the A.A. 1963-64, we read that «No outsiders to the University are allowed [in the library] who do not have special permission from the Dean. Under no circumstances may publications be borrowed or removed from the library premises5». Subsequently, the library was one of the first academic libraries to encourage and favour access by non-institutional users, regulating in a very inclusive manner the local lending service that could thus be enjoyed by all citizens through the payment of a deposit.
Currently, following the management and policy guidelines of the University Library System, the library guarantees its commitment to the continuous improvement of the quality of its services, and also to foster the enhancement of knowledge through activities that have a cultural, economic and educational impact on citizenship.
1. Giulia Simone et al., La facoltà Cenerentola: scienze politiche a Padova dal 1948 al 1968. Milano: F. Angeli, 2017.
2. For a history of the establishment of American libraries in Italy cf. Stefano Luconi, Una cattedra di storia e una biblioteca per l’ateneo: la diplomazia culturale statunitense e l’Università di Firenze in Quaderni del Circolo Rosselli, 1/2020.
3. Giulia Simone et al., La facoltà Cenerentola, cit.
4. Giorgio Montecchi, Fabio Venuda, Nuovo manuale di biblioteconomia. Milano: Ed. Bibliografica, 2022.
5. Bollettino-Notiziario della Facoltà di Scienze Politiche dell’A.A. 1963-64, n.9, gennaio 1964, pag. 7.
The Library's dedicatee
The Library of the School of Economics and Political Science is dedicated to the memory of Professor Ettore Anchieri, a distinguished scholar of the History of International Relations. For this reason, we consider it appropriate to briefly recall his biography and private and professional events that illustrate his commitment to international relations.
Professor Anchieri had an adventurous life: born in 1896 near Novara, he had to emigrate to Switzerland with his family due to economic difficulties; he returned to Italy at the outbreak of the First World War, which he fought as an Alpine soldier. After demobilisation, he enrolled at the University of Pavia where he obtained a degree in philosophy in 1921, later devoting himself to studies in pedagogy and psychology.
Only a few years later, after a teaching period in Italian high schools in Egypt and having understood from direct experience the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern problems, he turned his research interests to history and particularly to the history of international relations.
In 1948, the publication of "Constantinople and the Straits" testified to the complete maturity of this scholar, who was able to emerge «...from the tendency to particular enquiry prevalent in our most recent historiography1...»
At last, with the publication in 1950 of the essay "La grande alleanza del 1814-1822" (The Great Alliance of 1814-1822), one «...lucidly grasps the first signs of an époque, in which the problems of peace, the need for an international body capable of guaranteeing it, the awareness of a common destiny of Europe2» emerged in new terms compared to past Centuries.
In November 1954, Ettore Anchieri arrived in Padua, at the Political Science Faculty, where he was entrusted with the Chair of the History of Treaties and International Politics. He was elected Faculty Dean in 1959 and held the position until 1968, thus finding himself leading Political Science in a period characterised by intense student protests and numerous radical changes, many of which were due precisely to his tenacity and farsightedness3.
Indeed, it was also thanks to Anchieri's efforts that the Faculty obtained a new and prestigious location at Palazzo Dottori in November 1967: this ended the Political Science "precarious situation" at the Palazzo Bo and enabled it to overcome its image as the "Cinderella Faculty".
Now the Faculty can claim as many as two lecture halls on the ground floor; [...] on the second floor, [...] the library that can finally properly accommodate the more than 50,000 volumes4.
It was for his restless work, which led to a doubling of the teaching staff and a tripling of the number of students, that Anchieri was called "the dean of the Paduan political science renaissance5".
In these years, despite his rigorous scholarship, Professor Anchieri distinguished himself for «...the contagious fervour of his research commitment, the high and rigorous concept of the historian's and lecturer's profession, the inspirations that came from his intellectual curiosity, a vivid and current conception of history, always perceived in its immanent contemporaneity6».
In 1961 he joined the Commission for the Reorganisation and Publication of Italian Diplomatic Documents, later becoming its President.
He was still engaged in this scientific enterprise when he passed away on September 5th 1988.
1. Angelo Ventura, Ricordo del socio effettivo Ettore Anchieri, in Atti e memorie dell'Accademia Patavina di scienze lettere ed arti. Parte 1. Atti. Padova: Società cooperativa tipografica, 1991-92, vol. CIV, p. 125.
2. Ibidem
3. Giulia Simone et al, Dall'università d'élite all'università di massa: l'Ateneo di Padova dal secondo dopoguerra alla contestazione sessantottesca. Padova: Padova University Press, 2017
4. Giulia Simone et al, "La facoltà Cenerentola". Scienze politiche a Padova dal 1948 al 1968. Milano: Angeli, 2017, p.135.
5. Ibidem
6. Angelo Ventura, Ricordo del socio effettivo Ettore Anchieri, cit.
The “Guerrigliero”
Along with its valuable collections, the Library also houses a Mural. It is located in Sala Giardino, converted from what had previously been Prof. Sabino Acquaviva's office. As Prof. Marco Almagisti recalls: «Prof. Acquaviva was a professor and for a period also the Dean of the Faculty of Political Science, in Padua in the 1970s, in a difficult period of storms and hopes, during which he also found himself dealing with the most radical parts of those Social Movements he had studied. Curiosity, a desire to understand and to reason with his interlocutors, which are basic characteristics for a social scientist, accompanied him during this experience».
Of those troubled years and, in particular, of the circumstances that led to the mural's realisation, Prof. Acquaviva gives an account in his book "Sinfonia in rosso: 1977-1980".
Let us therefore leave the floor to him and follow him in the evocation of those events:
«Even the second time, during the occupation, they drew, wrote, painted the walls, and wanted to paint my studio too.
‘No’, I said, ‘you have no drawing skills, I'll do it myself’.
I bought a can of red paint, a can of black paint, and a paintbrush. I painted a guerrigliero with a machine gun in his hand and his arm pointed at the door. A symbol of what? Of their revolution? Of my way of changing the world differently? An invite to everyone to come out of my studio? Everyone could interpret it, in their way.
And in various ways, it was ‘read’ by the (satisfied) autonomous, Italian and foreign journalists who ‘afterwards’ came to interview me. They photographed it, used it, manipulated it, published it.
The guerrilla went around the world: scandalised or enthusiastic German, English, French and American friends wrote to me about it. Afterwards, the magazines continued to photograph me and the mural was always behind me. Almost the symbol of those months.
But then, when I painted it, everything was different: I drew it on the spur of the moment, and it ‘came out’ of a state of mind. It portrayed, or wanted to portray, a situation, a world, a history, a culture: just as they were. At that moment I felt a world that was symbolic of a space in which there were people, but I did not know which ones, were just about to use weapons: around me, certainly, of the ‘never again without a gun’, the terrorists who would later call themselves like that. But I didn't know who they were, and I felt a bit like a Kafka character».
Sabino Acquaviva, Sinfonia in rosso : 1977-1980. Milano: Rusconi, 1988, p. 42.
Sandro Pertini's autograph dedication
When history leaves its mark
«Agli allievi della Facoltà di Scienze Politiche di Padova, esortandoli a difendere sempre la libertà, la cui riconquista tanto è costata al popolo italiano.
Affettuosamente, Sandro Pertini.
Roma, novembre 1972».
«To the students of the Padua Faculty of Political Science, encouraging them to always defend freedom, whose re-conquest has cost the Italian people so much.
Affectionately, Sandro Pertini.
Rome, November 1972».
The library preserves an important 20th-century testimony: the book Sandro Pertini: "Sei condanne, due evasioni" (Sandro Pertini: six sentences, two escapes) with a handwritten dedication ‘Agli allievi della Facoltà di Scienze Politiche di Padova’ by Sandro Pertini, who was the seventh president of the Italian Republic, elected on 8 July 1978, the first socialist and the only member of the PSI to hold the office.
Sandro Pertini had a long and troubled life: he took part in the First World War, during which he distinguished himself for various achievements in the field. After World War I, he joined the Partito Socialista Unitario; he was a tenacious and energetic opponent of Fascism and was therefore persecuted by the fascist regime and imprisoned several times.
In August 1943, after joining the first Socialist Party executive, he was captured by the SS and sentenced to death. Thanks to a partisan action, he managed to escape and reach Milan, where he took over as secretary of the Socialist Party in the occupied territories and where he became one of the protagonists of the Resistance and its command structures.
In April 1945 he took part in the events that led to the liberation from Nazi-Fascism, organising the uprising in Milan and voting for the decree that condemned Mussolini and other fascist hierarchs to death.
He was elected Secretary of the Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity in 1945; on 2 June 1946, he was elected to the Italian Constituent Assembly.
His political parabola went through the phases of the post-war rebirth: a senator by right in the first legislature, in the second he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies and was reconfirmed without interruption until 1978.
At last, he was elected president of the Italian Republic on 8 July 1978, with 82.3 per cent of the vote, the highest percentage of all presidential elections in Republican history.
His presidential term was characterised by a strong personal touch that earned him considerable popularity, so much so that he is remembered as the most popular President among Italians.
«The authoritativeness with which he interpreted the role of President, together with the prestige that surrounded him as an uncompromising champion of anti-fascism, contributed decisively to stabilising the fortunes of Italian democracy in one of its most troubled moments. [...]
During his seven-year term, the firmness and human depth of his character emerged strongly; Pertini succeeded in reviving the Italians' trust in the institutions despite facing a systemic crisis that was to reveal itself irreversible. [...]
A great communicator, he displayed, even on official occasions, an extraordinary frankness and, at the same time, a conscious and measured approach, which gave his words the character of a message that was not episodic or incidental. No Italian head of state or politician has known popularity abroad comparable to that of Pertini».
He died in Rome, aged ninety-three, on 24 February 1990.
Umberto Gentiloni Silveri, Pertini Alessandro (Sandro), in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, vol. 82, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 2015, pp. 526-532.
History of the Newspaper Reading Service
From Monday, 9 January 2023, a selection of national and local newspapers can be consulted on the ground floor of the library, of which the current day and month's copies are available.
Through this service, the library fulfils the important function of current documentation of political affairs according to an established custom.
The constitution of a newspaper library goes back to the late 1960s, when the Political Science Students' Assembly, through the Student Movement, presented the then Political Science Faculty with “a series of demands”, some of which were “at least formally accepted” and, among them, the “constitution of the newspaper library”.
Dolores Negrello, A pugno chiuso : il Partito comunista padovano dal biennio rosso alla stagione dei movimenti. Milan: F. Angeli, 2000, pp. 254-255.
Over the years the library has devoted constant attention to the preservation and development of this heritage, much of which has been microfilmed and thus made available on a medium that does not easily deteriorate, has reduced storage costs and is less likely to become obsolescent.
After the suspension due to COVID-19, which interrupted 51 continuous years of delivery, the service has resumed with a focus on the opportunities offered by new technologies.