Image: Carlo Savonuzzi, Plan for suspended tank [on the Ferrara aqueduct], capacity 2500 m2, Variant from north elevation, 1929-1930 approx. (Architecture Library, FACS, Att. Com. 11, case 2, folder 11).
The engineer and architect Carlo Savonuzzi (Ferrara, 1897 - Sanremo, 1973) was one of the most important and prolific players in Ferrara's architecture and urban planning from the 1920s to the 1960s. He worked for both public institutions in the city - in particular the City Council and the Sant'Anna Central Hospital - and as an independent contractor.
The Carlo Savonuzzi Archival Collection (FACS) was acquired by the University of Ferrara Architecture Department in the early 2000s thanks to a donation from Gloria Savonuzzi, the daughter of the engineer and architect.
The collection includes the materials produced primarily through Carlo Savonuzzi's activities as a private contractor, as well as a few documents attributable to the services he provided to the public sector. It is made up of 263 folders, 23 volumes, 898 photographs (876 positives and 22 negatives) and 1867 drawings (on top of those preserved in the folders).
There are drawings on paper and tracing paper, charts, photographs, books and grey literature, all documentation that constitutes a highly important source for the study of the Ferrara area - and much more - and offers a glimpse into Savonuzzi's life, his passions and professional and personal relationships with other illustrious people of the time, including Adamo Boari, Giuseppe Agnelli and Luigi Vignali.
These are important artefacts for examining the many architectural works designed by Carlo Savonuzzi or for which he led the construction work, and also the urban transformations of the Este city in the same period.
The scientific director of the FACS is Professor Rita Fabbri (Architecture Department).
The collection is found in the Architecture Library, in Palazzo Tassoni.
To find out more
Ramona Loffredo, Inside and outside the Carlo Savonuzzi Collection, in Ferrara architettura, vol. 3: 1900s, edited by Rita Fabbri, Ferrara, Municipality, University of Ferrara, Faculty of Architecture, 2008, pp. 89-90.
Giovanna Caniatti, Carlo Savonuzzi: identity and place, in Cultural heritage revealed. The university libraries, from teaching to research and new opportunities. Ferrara Round Table, Restoration-Museums Fair, 22 March 2017. Proceedings, edited by Marina Contarini, Anna Bernabè and Maria Grazia Mondini, Ferrara, UnifePress, 2017
Anna Bernabè, ‘Carlo Savonuzzi’ Archival Collection in Stories of books and palaces. Tours of the Unife libraries, edited by Cristina Baldi and Paola Iannucci, Ferrara, UnifePress, 2021, pp. 208-211.
The collection is kept at the Architecture Library.
The volumes that make up the collection are ineligible for external loans, but it is possible to consult them in the library, upon request, made by telephone (+39 0532 293628), email at times agreed with the staff.
It is also necessary to download and complete the Consultation Request form.
If you would like to make copies with your own equipment, it is necessary to download and complete the Self-declaration for reproduction using personal equipment.
Rules for consultation
Regulations for the activities and services of the University of Ferrara Libraries, art. 28
- The consultation of ancient or valuable documents must take place in a dedicated area, controlled by the library.
- Volumes that need restoring are excluded from consultation.
- Users can access only one document for consultation at a time, unless there is a proven need to compare it with other documents.
- Users must diligently comply with the following instructions:
- use the designated bookstands and other equipment in the room made available, in order to protect the documents;
- if the specialised staff consider it necessary, wear the cotton gloves provided;
- if the use of gloves is not considered necessary, handle the documents with clean, dry hands;
- bring only erasable pencils, note paper and a laptop without a case;
- do not make any mark or underline anything, even in pencil, on the documents;
- do not place writing paper or anything else on top of the documents;
- avoid putting pressure on the bindings in order not to damage them;
- do not trace any images (watermarks, drawings, miniatures, bindings);
- if needed, use only flexible tape measures and magnifying glasses;
- in the case of loose or miscellaneous papers, do not alter in any way the order of the documents;
- report any missing items, damages or discrepancies found in the documents consulted to the librarians as soon as possible.
- Users are responsible for the works they are consulting until the moment they are returned. If you are leaving the consultation area, even briefly, the document must be returned.
All of the documents were immediately secured, with further significant protection operations performed from 2013, allowing the collection to be opened to the public in 2016.
Interventions for the restoration of documents in more precarious condition were soon undertaken - and are still in progress - with particular attention to the drawings on tracing paper, which is a fragile material that is highly vulnerable to deterioration.
The first activity to reorganise the collection was supported by a generous donation from Salvatore Topa and Amedea Manservisi in memory of their son Gianluca, who was studying for a degree at the Ferrara Architecture Faculty when he unexpectedly died in January 2002. The work was performed by Anna Maria Guccini, director of the "Giuseppe Mengoni" Archive in Fontanelice (BO), with the support of the working group established by the University of Ferrara Faculty of Architecture; directed by Vittorio Savi, the group was made up of university lecturers such as Claudio Alessandri and Rita Fabbri, architect Ramona Loffredo, and librarians Landina Sebastianis and Luigi Tabacchi.
From 2014 to 2016, the collection underwent an archival inventory operation. Updates on the documents in the collection are now available via the portal archIVI. A city of archives, a project from the Del Monte Foundation in Bologna and Ravenna and the Cassa di Risparmio Foundation in Bologna, in collaboration with the Archival and Bibliographic Superintendency for Emilia-Romagna.
The collection is also catalogued in the Unified IT System for Archival Superintendencies (SIUSA) and can also be found through the thematic portal Archives of Architects, promoted by the General Direction for Archives at the Ministry of Culture.
To find out more
Marina Contarini and Anna Bernabè, Protection and promotion of ancient and valuable collections in the University of Ferrara libraries (2008-2017- ), in Cultural heritage revealed. The university libraries, from teaching to research and new opportunities. Ferrara Round Table, Restoration-Museums Fair, 22 March 2017. Proceedings, edited by Marina Contarini, Anna Bernabè and Maria Grazia Mondini, Ferrara, UnifePress, 2017
Armando Antonelli, The cultural heritage of the web. The archival experience of the “Archivi” portal, in Cultural heritage revealed. The university libraries, from teaching to research and new opportunities. Ferrara Round Table, Restoration-Museums Fair, 22 March 2017. Proceedings, edited by Marina Contarini, Anna Bernabè and Maria Grazia Mondini, Ferrara, UnifePress, 2017
With the Art Bonus, you can support projects for ancient book restoration at the University of Ferrara.
Virtual Tour
Conventions, conferences, seminars
28 October 2016 - Convention City of paper | City of stone - The professional archive of Carlo Savonuzzi, a protagonist of Ferrara's architecture in the 1900s (Ferrara, University Architecture Department, 28 October 2016)
Led by the University of Ferrara Architecture Department, and the university's Libraries Division, Museums Division and Historical Archive, with the contribution of the Archival and Bibliographical Superintendency for Emilia-Romagna, the Del Monte Foundation in Bologna and Ravenna, the Ferrara Municipal Theatre and the Wunderkammer Consortium in Ferrara.
City of paper and City of stone. Conference: The professional archive of Carlo Savonuzzi (length: 1 hour, 17 minutes and 45 seconds)
Press Review
28 October 2016, The City of Archives: The archive of Carlo Savonuzzi, a protagonist of Ferrara's architecture in the 1900s, is released
29 October 2016, Il Resto del Carlino, Ferrara, the Carlo Savonuzzi Archive on display
31 October 2016, Il mondo degli archivi, The archive of Carlo, Ferrara architect
16 November 2016, Listone Mag, Savonuzzi, who was he?
16 December 2016, Ferrara Italia, The exhibition of architect Carlo Savonuzzi's archive at Unife
16 December 2016, Estense.com, Exhibition of the projects from architect Carlo Savonuzzi's personal archive
28 January 2019, CronacaComune. The Ferrara City Council's online newspaper, "The architect's papers": workshop with the projects of engineer Savonuzzi
29 January 2019, La Nuova Ferrara, A visit to the Savonuzzi Archive to understand his architecture
16 April 2018 - Lesson The architect's papers: pieces from the Carlo Savonuzzi Archive (U.T.E.F. - City of Ferrara University of Continuing Education, course in Architecture and existing structures in direct and indirect sources)
Workshops
29 January 2018 - Participation in the Emilia-Romagna Cultural Heritage Institute's contest titled "I Love Cultural Heritage" (8th edition).
The entry, which was the winner of funding in the "archives" section, was submitted by the Ferrara City Council (Libraries and Archives Service) along with CPIA, Centre for Adult Education - Ferrara (lead institutions), with the collaboration of other educational and cultural partners from the city. It was dedicated to a project to develop the Garden District, called "The world garden: a journey into the most multicultural district in Ferrara". Within the framework of the project, the Architecture Department participated by developing a workshop (led by Rita Fabbri) called "The architect's papers: projects in the Garden District from the Carlo Savonuzzi Archive", which was held at the UNIFE Architecture Department's "M. Zaffagnini" Library with class 2C from Carducci High School. Press release
2016 - Workshop developed in collaboration with the «Luigi Einaudi» Institute of Higher Education, Ferrara, and the «Alda Costa» State Comprehensive Institute, Ferrara (28 October - 6 November 2016). Structured using a peer-to-peer framework, the workshop allowed the students from the «L. Einaudi» Institute to develop technical skills, as well as knowledge of the 20th century urban planning and architecture in our city, which in turn helped them to act as tutors for the younger pupils from the «A. Costa» Institute. The drawings produced during the workshop were displayed, along with a wide selection of projects from FACS, at an exhibition held at the Chemistry and Biology Library of Santa Maria delle Grazie (6 December 2016 - 31 January 2017).
Exhibitions
2022 - Virtual exhibition Places for performance. Architecture on a human scale, opened on the occasion of the 12th National Architecture Archives Day (19 May 2022), promoted by the National Association of Contemporary Architecture Archivesand dedicated to «The human dimension». Flyer
Virtual exhibition - Places for performance. Architecture on a human scale video (length: 15 minutes and 14 seconds)
2019 - Places of care, through the documents in the Carlo Savonuzzi Archival Collection (Ferrara, Palazzo Tassoni, 26-30 October 2019), for Ferrara Open Monuments.
2018 - Exhibition of reproductions of FACS documents at the Ferrara ex-MOF during Ferrara Open Monuments.
2016 - City of paper and City of stone. Interpreting and reinterpreting Carlo Savonuzzi's architecture (Ferrara, Chemistry and Biology Library of Santa Maria delle Grazie, 6 December 2016 - 31 January 2017)
City of paper and City of stone. Interpreting and reinterpreting Carlo Savonuzzi's architecture (length: 1 minute and 17 seconds)
2016 - City of paper | City of stone - The professional archive of Carlo Savonuzzi (Ferrara, Palazzo Tassoni Estense, Municipal Theatre and Palazzo Savonuzzi, 28 October - 6 November 2016). Organised by the University of Ferrara Architecture Department, and the university's Libraries Division, Museums Division and Historical Archive, with the contribution of the Archival and Bibliographical Superintendency for Emilia-Romagna, the Del Monte Foundation in Bologna and Ravenna, the Ferrara Municipal Theatre and the Wunderkammer Consortium in Ferrara.
City of paper | City of stone. The professional archive of Carlo Savonuzzi, a protagonist of Ferrara's architecture in the 1900s online on the archIVI portal
Digitalisation
Guided tours
28 October 2018 - Stories of books and palaces. Inauguration of the tour with the opening of the locations. The students from the 4th year of the "A. Roiti" Science-specialist High School in Ferrara, along with representatives from the University Library System and Museum System, guided visitors around the palaces of the university, libraries and historical collections.
Audiovisual
'Carlo Savonuzzi' Archival Collection, Architecture Library (length 2:48)
Video in Italian Sign Language (LIS) made thanks to collaboration from the Equal Opportunities and Disability Policy Coordination, the E-Learning and Multimedia Services Office and AIDUS (Association for the Inclusion of Hearing and Deaf People).
Other
Images of pieces from the collection have been reproduced on bookmarks, postcards and other novelty items available at the Unife Libraries.
In 2020, the video City of paper | City of stone - The professional archive of Carlo Savonuzzi was selected for the campaign #laculturanonsiferma promoted during the pandemic emergency (2020) by the Emilia-Romagna Institute for Artistic, Cultural and Natural Heritage, to offer people the opportunity to follow the cultural offer of our region, which was temporarily suspended, from a distance, using the Lepida TV digital platform on digital TV channel 118.
Since 2021, FACS has been a member of AAA/Italy - the National Association of Contemporary Architecture Archives.
To find out more
Rita Fabbri, City of paper | City of stone: The professional archive of Carlo Savonuzzi, a protagonist of Ferrara's architecture in the 1900s, opens to the public, «La Pianura», 2016, no. 3, pp. 57-59
Rita Fabbri, Promoting the archival legacy of an architect: experiences with the Carlo Savonuzzi Archive, in Cultural heritage revealed. The university libraries, from teaching to research and new opportunities. Ferrara Round Table, Restoration-Museums Fair, 22 March 2017. Proceedings, edited by Marina Contarini, Anna Bernabè and Maria Grazia Mondini, Ferrara, UnifePress, 2017
