Libraries

The Italian government until the early part of the 20th century had done little to establish libraries, nor their development or functioning. However, there were institutions, private associations, national works, municipalities, religious authorities that had established some libraries. However, they weren’t open to any one walked in: you have to be either a student, if it was a university library, or a member of the association. What’s worse was that a royal decree in 1866 prohibited religious orders to have libraries and required them to donate all of their books to a more public library, which only overwhelmed the few public libraries there were with more books that they could catalog, more books by far than they had shelves to hold.

These libraries include a few organizations. There was the Consorzio Nazionale delle Biblioteche Torino (i.e., National Consortium of Libraries in Turin) – see the first row of this album page. Plus, there was the Federazione delle Biblioteche Popolari (i.e., Federation of Popular Libraries) based in Milan – see the second row here. And there was also the `Gruppo d’Azione per le Scuole del Popolo Pure (i.e., Action Group for Public Schools) in Milan – see the third row of this page.

In addition to these three organizations, there was the Associazione Nazionale delle Biblioteche delle Scuole Italiane (i.e., National Association of Italian School Libraries) in Bologna – see stamps on first row, two pages back. And there was the Federazione delle Biblioteche Circolanti (i.e., Federation of Circulating Libraries) – see stamps on last row of the same page.

According to the government at the time, “these institutions have shown considerable activity in founding these institutes, and in encouraging their development, but perhaps with non-compliant results in all regions.”

As a result of that assessment, a law was passed in 1917 requiring each community establish a library for ex-students and adults – I guess ex-students were under the age of 21 (i.e., not yet adult by the standard of that time) and no longer attending school. The law said, “this legal basis, the creation of a special body at the centre, the assiduous work that ecclesiastical and parastatal bodies carry out in this regard, give confidence that a dense and well-ordered network of such libraries will soon emerge throughout the country.” It turned out to be mess.

Note

This page will take longer than the previous ones to complete since it has four sets of these stamps. For now, I have at least one set so it’s not showing on my list of empty pages – which irks me.

Contains 16 spots: own 12 – 12 unused, 0 used.
Album or Web Page Last changed Jul 15, 2023

Stamp Details

The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.

spot

own

catalog

subject

description

comment

Overprint Turino Library

1.1	✓	ES30	Turino Library Consortium	5c (mar 1924) entities, green
1.2	✓	ES31	Turino Library Consortium	10c (mar 1924) entities, pink
1.3	✓	ES32	Turino Library Consortium	30c (mar 1924) entities, red brown
1.4	✓	ES33	Turino Library Consortium	50c (mar 1924) entities, lilac

Overprint People’s Library

2.1	✓	ES34	People’s Libraries Federation	10c (mar 1924) entities, carmine
2.2	✓	ES35	People’s Libraries Federation	30c (mar 1924) entities, orange
2.3	✓	ES36	People’s Libraries Federation	50c (mar 1924) entities, lilac
2.4	✓	ES37	People’s Libraries Federation	1₤ (mar 1924) entities, blue green

Overprint Milan Schools

3.1	✓	ES38	Milan Action Schools	5c (mar 1924) entities, green
3.2	✓	ES39	Milan Action Schools	10c (mar 1924) entities, pink
3.3	✓	ES40	Milan Action Schools	30c (mar 1924) entities, brown orange
3.4	✓	ES41	Milan Action Schools	50c (mar 1924) entities, lilac

Overprint Trieste League

4.1	ES42	Trieste National League	5c (mar 1924) entities, green
4.2	ES43	Trieste National League	10c (mar 1924) entities, pink
4.3	ES44	Trieste National League	30c (mar 1924) entities, brown
4.4	ES45	Trieste National League	50c (mar 1924) entities, violet

Footnotes

Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).
Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.
Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.
To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.