PASSEGGIATA TABUCCHI 6
A WALK WITH TABUCCHI 6
Biblioteca Comunale Antonio Tabucchi
Via Sant'Alessandro, 9
The Vecchiano Town Hall Library, nowadays named after Antonio Tabucchi, was opened in 1993 thanks to the initiative of a group of Vecchiano locals who gathered in a cultural Association called La Ginestra, created to offer a cultural meeting place and a point of reference for the whole community, in collaboration with the Municipality, which provided the Association with the venue of Via Sant’Alessandro and its furniture. The name La Ginestra makes reference to the Scotch Broom, the scented plant present in the nearby landscapes and dear to poet Giacomo Leopardi.
Their first initiative, embraced by many people, was called ‘Donate a book to the library’ and it gave birth to an initial book collection. This initiative was followed, thanks to the Town Hall Administration, by regular book purchases and more donations, among which the first batch of the so-called Fondo Tabucchi, in the Autumn 1994. Tabucchi himself contributed on a regular basis to increase the collection, and he manifested interest in the activities of the Association participating also in some cultural meetings. The collection presently consists of 1491 books and it’s split into six sections: works written by Antonio Tabucchi or edited by him, and works about Antonio Tabucchi; fiction and theatre; poetry; essays; other types of works; books with dedication. Those latter also feature dedications by people who had important roles in politics or in literary milieus, both in Italy and abroad, such as Achille Occhetto, Remo Ceserani, Alain Elkann, Roberto Cotroneo and Inge Feltrinelli.
The cataloguing of the works started with the first donations, and it was done on paper according to the library rules of the time. In the course of the years the Vecchiano Municipality took charge of the library management, as an addition to the Library and Archival Services, thus enriching its heritage and increasing its activities.
Since 2009 the Vecchiano Municipality has joined the Rete documentaria Bibliolandia of Pisa, the first step to insert the small library into a wider system, consisting today of a network of all the libraries scattered across the province of Pisa.
Joining this network has allowed the stocks of all the libraries, thanks to a digitalization process, to be listed in a single online catalogue, including the books of the Fondo Tabucchi, which became accessible to thousands of users, thanks to the interlibrary loan service in this network and also among the various networks in Tuscany and at a national level.
The most precious volumes of the collection, however, need to be preserved, thus they are not for loan. The Town Hall Library was named after Antonio Tabucchi on September 25th 2012, a few months after his passing. The local authorities and many friends of the writer participated in the funeral ceremony, including Ugo Riccarelli, who was interviewed on that afternoon during Fahrenheit, a literary radio program of Rai Radio 3 dedicated to books and stories.
(Traduzione di Rina Boschetti)