To mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the Library of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has taken part in the cartographic census of leaflets, pamphlets and other ephemeral publications (Ephemera) relating to the Second World War. The project was coordinated and conducted by the Department for the Conservation of Rare Books at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
As a result of the census, it is now possible to view an interactive map bringing together information on holdings from various European, American, Israeli and Canadian institutions, including six from Italy.
The Library holds around 120 publications related to the Spanish Civil War, comprising a variety of formats – including books, pamphlets, periodicals (some satirical) and leaflets – which constitute an important record of the ideological propaganda circulated in the interwar period.
The Library’s entry can be consulted here: https://framacarte.org/it/map/second-world-war-leaflets-collections-in-public-li_138023#13/41.9660/12.4265
Also taking part in the network is the National Library of Spain, with pamphlets on the Spanish Civil War, a field in which the holdings of the MAECI Library provide an important complement.
These publications were sent to the Ministry’s Library at the time of the conflict by Italy’s diplomatic missions abroad – Embassies, Consulates and Italian propaganda offices in Spain, most notably the Italian Press Office (known as USI), established in early 1937. The correspondence exchanged daily between these missions and the Spain Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – directly under the authority of the Foreign Minister’s Office headed by Galeazzo Ciano – has been preserved in a highly significant archival series (433 boxes), which is of considerable historical value.
The material was subsequently reorganised and placed in 251 folders within the archival collection Cabinet of the Minister and the General Secretariat 1923–1943. This collection also includes a set of earlier documents filed under the “secret” section of the ordinary series, predating the official creation of the Spain Office within the Ministry. During this reorganisation, many publications and pamphlets were found among the documents, having been sent as attachments. With accompanying descriptive records, they were incorporated into the Library’s holdings.
These materials – comprising leaflets, pamphlets and other ephemeral publications – have now been fully recorded within the framework of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France’s census project.
The Library also holds the only complete existing collection of El Legionario, a magazine published in Spain by the Italian Press Office, as well as a set of issues of Boletín de Información, also published by USI; various publications from the Italian Ministry of War; and two folders of military maps used in operations carried out in Spain by Italian forces, all of which derive from this archival corpus. This documentation represents a valuable resource for the study of the Spanish Civil War and for research on ideological propaganda in the first half of the 20th century. Thanks to participation in this census project, these materials are now accessible to scholars worldwide.
