For science and pleasure: archival sources for the study of thermal libraries

Abstract

In Italy, spas boast a centuries-old tradition, yet it is only in relatively recent times that they have been organised and structured as true spa enterprises. Enterprises with production axes differentiated over time, which flank the well-being of the body with recreational activities for the spirit and which are building an accurate infrastructural network. Witnesses to this union, which has changed over time, are the papers produced by the public or private spa organisations themselves. These are complex archives, still to be studied and explored in depth, but which present peculiar characteristics and broad polysemies. They are treasure troves of memories that contain papers intrinsically connected to book and museum collections: in some cases, true hydrological libraries are born and preserved within the establishment. The documentary sedimentation of Montecatini Terme will offer, in this sense, an interesting and unique case study to observe the peculiarities of these collections from the inside. The contribution briefly traces an institutional historical analysis of thermalism and, starting from the reference context, aims to thoroughly investigate the connections existing between these archives and libraries.

Keywords

• thermae
• archives
• library history