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INTRODUCTION
Italiano:
In
1956 took place an exhibition on relics from Fiume, here the correspondence
between Mons. Luigi M. Torcoletti and Dr. Nino Perini gave the first idea to
collect all the memories on Fiume in a Museum-Archive. Some years later,
during a meeting in Venice with Attilio Depoli and some friends, what was
only an idea began to take shape. In that occasion it has been discussed the
fate of so many documents and publications produced in Fiume from the last
century up to now days; various relics, printings, series of reviews held by
so many citizens and fellows who had participate at the life of the city in
the most dramatic events. All those memories, preserved with loving care and
saved at the moment of the exodus, often with difficulties, risked to get
loose if not organized in a someway. So Prof. Attilio Depoli proposed to
create an institution which could have the aim to collect all the
historically important material to be transmitted from generation to
generation as tangible memory of Fiume and of its secular struggle in
defense of Italianity. At the same time a center of studies on Fiume would
be created. No others than the pre-existing “Societą di Studi Fiumani” could
absolve the task that Attilio Depoli was thinking to. The “Societą di Studi
Fiumani” was created in 1923 as inheritance of the “Deputazione Fiumana di
Storia Patria” borne at the beginning of the century mainly thanks to Egisto
Rossi who had believed in the historical studies as the only defense of
italianity of Fiume when its rights and secular privileges were becoming
more threaten. At the beginning of the II World Conflict (1939-1945) the
Society was forced to dissolve absorbed by the “Deputazione di Storia Patria
of the Venices” and it was thought to rebuild it during the exile. On
November 27, 1960, for to the initiative of Depoli himself, and later of
Prof. Enrico Burich, Prof. Giorgio Radetti and Dr. Gian Proda, the “Societą
di Studi Fiumani” took new life, to continue, with more and different
difficulties, its previous activity. Among its first acts the appeal
launched to everyone who possessed historical relics, documents,
publications, to offer them to the new Museum-Archive. The appeal of the
society had success and soon a great quantity of historical material arrived
at the house of Dr. Proda. In the meantime Proda could obtain, from the
National Assistance Opera to the Refugee of the Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia,
the promise to have reserved an area for the Museum-Archive of Fiume in the
new building in construction in Rome.
In
1963 Prof. Enrico Burich, succeeded to Prof. Attilio Depoli dead on March 1,
1962, at the opening of the second general assembly, could also declare: “we
will have a dignified seat and we must thank the Opera for this. It exists a
receptacle for the material collected, and this is a good step. You should
think to a permanent exhibition of all our mostly beloved things: remarkable
documents, photographic reproductions of our homes, our Corso, our
Cittavecchia, the proclamations which demonstrate our struggle in defense of
italianity, our activity in the culture and in economy... But it will not be
only a sacred place where our memories can house, also a center of
historical studies on Fiume, beginning from the passed centuries to our days
when Fiume becomes a national symbol...”.
Enrico Burich couldn’t see the centre of studies and of memories
for which he had worked so hard: suddenly he died in Modena on October 12,
1965, only one month after the death of Gian Proda, first Conservation
Curator of the Museum-Archive. The “Society of Studies on Fiume” had
continued their work with the same care they had.
The Museum-Archive, located in via Cippico n.10, Eur-Roma,
thanks to generous bequests it now has a rational furnishing and the
material collected increases more and more; everything has been cataloged
and inventoried so to have easily access for consultation of researchers.
Nowadays the Archive owns a remarkable collection of documents,
containing even two handwritten copies of the Statuti granted to Fiume from
Ferdinando I of Austria in 1530, all the autographed letters of G.D’Annunzio
to Antonio Grossich (1919-1921), the books of verbals of the “Giovine Fiume”
(the first irredentist society of Fiume), the documents on Fiume from the
personal archives of Oscar Sinigaglia, of Andrea Ossoinack, Riccardo Zanella,
Antonio Grossich and Giovanni Giurati; documents related to particular
events of the life of the city, several printings of the 19th century,
vintage pictures by artists from Fiume representative of the city, portraits
and more than a thousand of photographs and various relics.
The historical Library of Fiume, together with the Archive, has
hundreds of volumes interesting for the history of Fiume, Dalmatia and
Istria; several collections of reviews and newspapers published in Fiume
until 1945 (“Eco di Fiume”, “La Gazzetta di Fiume”, “Il Popolo”, “La
Bilancia”, “Il Giornale”, “La Vedetta d’Italia”, “Studio e Lavoro”, “Varietą”,
“La Difesa”, “Vita Fiumana”, “La Vedetta”, “Giovine Fiume”, “Liburnia”, “Fiume”...).
Particularly interesting, in this collection, is the only existing copy of
the journal issued in Fiume in 1813 “Le Notizie del Giorno”.
The institution created by the Society is now ready to offer, to
researchers of the history of Fiume, a qualified increasing collection of
documentation. New spur should come from the collaboration of young people
now operating inside the “Associazione per la Cultura Fiumana, Istriana e
Dalmata nel Lazio” born in 1995. From 1998 the entire archival material has
been entrusted to the Association, located where the same “Societą di Studi
Fiumani” is. |
