School books exhibition. The historical collection of the G. Leopardi boarding school library in Macerata

Abstract

This contribution aims to retrace the phases of the conception and realization of a Public History of Education project which involved the historical collection of an important school library in Macerata, that of the G. Leopardi boarding school. The collection has been chosen as an example of a historical-educational heritage of great importance, not only for the value of the books it contains (mostly textbooks and children’s literature representative of the pedagogical canons of the Italian school between the 19th century and 20th century), but also for the countless traces of individual and collective memory it preserves (many examples are rich in extra-textual notes). This precious book collection has been the subject of a virtual exhibition, created by students and designed to stimulate knowledge and reflection on school libraries as treasures of inestimable value for the purposes of reconstructing the identity and the memory of a place and of the community that inhabits it.