Rivista "IBC" XII, 2004, 3
Dossier: Carattere Europa
musei e beni culturali, biblioteche e archivi, dossier / inchieste e interviste
The conference organized in Parma to mark the 40th anniversary of Museo Bodoniano was the occasion for bringing together four of the most important printing museums: the Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp, the Gutenberg in Mainz, the Musée de l'Imprimerie in Lyon and the Bodoniano. Their history, policies and missions were illustrated and compared, with particular attention to the necessity of ferrying the institutions into the 21st century, giving the widest possible access to the existing collections and incorporating the latest technological developments relevant to printing. At the end of the conference, the directors of the museums kindly accepted to be interviewed. The full text in the original languages follows.
The printing museums must balance their museum aspect and their collections, which are strongly related to the library world. How do they interact with museums and libraries and their respective tools?
Eva Hanebutt-Benz - We have a museum library, for studying and lending. Contacts with outside libraries and museums are basically about lending and borrowing and more on the basis of friendship than on an established network. There is an exchange of experience, of course. We take books from the libraries for exhibitions and we must take very good care for their exhibition and studying, about conditions etc. I would say that we are closer to museums than libraries, relations with libraries tend to be more distant.
Alan Marshall - France is perhaps a particular case because of the existence of the Direction du livre et de la lecture. Traditionally we are closer to the library world than to the museum world, though we hope to obtain the label "Musée de France" which will bring us closer to the museum world. I think it is important to maintain close links with both because of the specific nature of the printed objects which we conserve and exhibit.
Francine De Nave - Nous avons une politique articulée qui se développe aussi bien dans les musées de typographie, dans le bibliothèques, dans les archives et dans les musées de la technique, mais nous sommes clairement un musée et nos rapports préférentiels se développent avec des musées.
Leonardo Farinelli - Il Museo Bodoniano è una sintesi espositiva di materiale a stampa e tecnico-fusorio. Possiede una sua biblioteca che, oltre a conservare la produzione bodoniana, si arricchisce in funzione di quanto di tipografico-fusorio e documento a stampa è esposto e raccoglie inoltre le pubblicazioni riguardanti il mondo della grafica, dell'editoria, ecc.
What is the administrative status of your museums, i.e. are they independent/privately owned or part of a local/national authority? How does the status affect the development and the up-keeping of the collections? What are the resources?
Eva Hanebutt-Benz - We depend on civic money, from the bureau for schools, museums, libraries and archives of the City of Mainz. In some exceptional cases, such as very important exhibitions, funds can be requested to the Ministry of Palatinate.
Alan Marshall - We are a municipal museum, with occasional private funding. The "Musée de France" label, while maintaining our municipal status, will doubtless give us access to new sources not only of public funding but of museum expertise, particularly in the field of conservation techniques.
Francine De Nave - Nous sommes un musée de la ville et c'est de la ville que viennent nos ressources mais nous avons l'assistance du Ministère de la Communauté Flamande, surtout pour les projets mais aussi pour la gestion: les salaires sont payés par la ville ainsi que les frais des bâtiments, chauffage etc., toutefois pour le projets tels que la restauration des collections, la préparation de guides audio-visuelles, CD ROMs et films, nous pouvons recevoir l'assistance financière du Ministère. La ville est en tout cas la propriétaire des collections du début même du musée, bien que le bâtiment était au passé une propriété de l'état flamand, depuis 1999 tout est de la ville.
Leonardo Farinelli - Il Museo è un ente autonomo giuridicamente riconosciuto. Secondo statuto le risorse per le spese di gestione dovrebbero provenire dallo Stato, da enti pubblici, associazioni, privati cittadini e dalle rendite del patrimonio. In realtà, dall'entrata in vigore del vigente statuto (1999), lo Stato non ha elargito alcun finanziamento (per motivi burocratici), così come non lo hanno fatto gli altri enti pubblici: Regione, Provincia e Comune. Hanno invece contribuito, seppure senza regolare continuità, due fondazioni private locali, la Fondazione Monte di Parma e la Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio. Inoltre la Biblioteca Palatina sostiene le spese di pulizia ordinaria del Museo e gli assegna per alcuni giorni a settimana un suo dipendente per lo svolgimento di varie pratiche. Senza regolari e sicuri finanziamenti non è chiaramente possibile incrementare le collezioni, anzi, si riesce a fatica ad assicurare la normale vita del Museo stesso.
What is your approach to schools and education? Is there any training for students of history of the book, with appropriate tutoring and training spells? Is there any co-operation with under/post graduate schools for librarians?
Eva Hanebutt-Benz - We get many school-children with their teachers. Mainly by word of mouth of their teachers, they also like to come during the holidays. We try to show them how things are done, like bookbinding. We would like to get more students, but it depends on the programme of the university; librarians are not allowed anymore during their training, unfortunately and there is not much that we can do about it.
Alan Marshall - A large number of school-children (8,000 last year) take part in educational activities in the Museum. We are also involved in organisation of continuing education courses offered by ENSSIB (Ecole normale supérieure des sciences de l'information et des bibliothèques) and the Institut d'histoire du livre (of which the Museum is one of the founding members). These courses are aimed at librarians, academics, researchers, designers, etc.
Francine De Nave - Nous recevons beaucoup d'écoliers, nous organisons des workshops pour les plus petits pendant l'été et nous faisons de la publicité pour les attirer: par notre website, par une revue qui est editée par la Communauté Flamande à l'intention des écoles. Du même pour les écoles secondaires; pour l'université des cours sont organisés mais c'est l'université qui se déplace et donne cours chez nous pour mieux voir le matériel. En outre l'Ecole Supérieure "Plantin Genootschap", avec siège au musée, organise depuis 1951 des cours spécialisés en les matières de l'édition et de la typographie pour des adultes actifs dans le secteur du livre.
Leonardo Farinelli - Di concerto con la Biblioteca Palatina il Museo svolge una intensa attività didattica su esplicita richiesta delle scuole. Vengono effettuate visite guidate e lezioni sulla storia del libro, della stampa, sulla produzione e la vita di Bodoni, rivolte a scuole di ogni ordine e grado, compresa l'Università. Non ci sono invece corsi specifici per studenti di storia del libro (che sovente visitano il Museo) o cooperazioni con corsi per bibliotecari.
Do you think that a network of printing museums and, possibly, writers' houses can be envisaged?
Eva Hanebutt-Benz - There is a network; a group was established last year as the Association of European Printing Museums and we have recently met. We cannot be a legal body, but we are at least active in keeping each other informed. One of our aims is to keep old techniques and skills alive.
Alan Marshall - France already has an association of writer's houses. The Museum is however an active member of the Association of European Printing Museums which we hope will not only succeed in setting up a training course for printing museum mediators and demonstrators but which will also become a lively and effective forum for exchanging information and comparing museum practices in our specific field.
Francine De Nave - Peut-être nous allons joindre l'Association des Musées de Typographie de l'Europe pour le coté ancien. Mme Hanebutt-Benz vient de me demander de participer à cette initiative. Nous sommes aussi membres spéciales du Consortium of European Research Libraries et nominés par UNESCO en tant que Patrimoine Universelle.
Leonardo Farinelli - Ritengo che i musei della stampa e le case degli scrittori sia italiani che stranieri potrebbero unirsi in una federazione ed insieme presentare progetti seri. Sarebbe auspicabile che tutto questo avvenisse con il sostegno finanziario della Comunità europea.
Digitization is of great importance for both museums and libraries: what is the position of your museum? Your institutions have interesting websites. How do you evaluate their success?
Eva Hanebutt-Benz - We are starting and I must say that we have not gained much experience so far. We have created our own website and we try to keep it as updated and user-friendly as possible (www.gutenberg.de/museum.htm).
Alan Marshall - Our website has steadily grown over the last four years and will soon be integrated within the portal of the City of Lyon. As a result it will have greater resources at its disposal, including a new interface including picture libraries which we are in the process of creating. The first organised digitising campaign will concern our collection of 2.600 printers' devices (15th-18th centuries). Our website has been generally very well received and is regularly used by a wide range of specialists and non specialists as well as by teachers preparing a visit to the Museum with their students. The address is www.bm-lyon.fr/musee/imprimerie.htm.
Francine De Nave - Nous avons commencé à travailler dans ce domaine dans les années 90s, en commençant par les objets; il s'agissait d'une entreprise extérieure, des experts payés pour faire le travail sur notre selection. Nous avons maintenant demandé au Ministère de la Communauté Flamande des subsides pour entamer ce même projet sur nos archives ( museum.antwerpen.be/plantin_moretus/).
Leonardo Farinelli - Anche il Museo Bodoniano si è dotato da circa un anno di un suo sito web, in realtà ancora in fase di ampliamento e perfezionamento. Siamo senz'altro favorevoli all'organizzazione di visite virtuali e ci attrezzeremo al più presto perché queste siano possibili.
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