Ferdinando Martini - his political activity for Italian libraries

The text clarifies the biography and works of Ferdinando Martini (1841-1929), researcher and bibliophile, owner of a big library, which was later given to the Biblioteca Forteguerriana in Pistoia. Martini was at his time, together with Bonghi, the politician most involved in the reassessment of library policies in Italy after the national unification. He was Deputate at the Italian Parliement between 1876 and 1919, General Secretary of the Ministry of Education and collaborator of the Minister, Michele Coppino, in the first Giolitti government (1892-1893). He attended the 1879 inquiry on the Alessandrina Library in Rome, which is here re-examined, and partecipated in the political debate on State libraries in Italy, especially on the two National libraries founded in Rome and Florence. Martini’s contribute to the Regulation on governmental libraries in Italy (october 28th, 1885, no. 346) reveals also his commitment to promoting the knowledge of the national bibliographic heritage, especially through the project Indici e cataloghi for the description of the main Italian collections of manuscripts and books.