La biblioteca comunale di Putignano | Fonte di sapere, cultura e tradizione.

In 1953 the idea of ​​developing a municipal library in the town of Putignano was developed in order to disseminate culture and tradition in greater depth. The project matured in the administrative structure headed by Filippo De Miccolis Angelini, to whom it is today entitled. The formal institution took place with a resolution of the Municipal Council on June 10th 1958, the official inauguration on June 29th 1964.

 

 

The former Carmelite Convent dating back to 1568 was chosen as the seat of the library and the initial endowment consisted of about seven thousand volumes from the two conventual libraries of the Capuchins and the Carmelites, from the donation of Prince Guglielmo Romanazzi Carducci, from the circulating library, from a donation of books granted on a perpetual loan by USIS (US Information Service), by the publisher Giovanni Laterza, a native of Putignano, and by mayor Filippo De Miccolis Angelini. The municipal administration provided for the purchase of encyclopedias, of all the works of Benedetto Croce published by Laterza; subscriptions to 10 magazines, 3 newspapers and 4 local periodicals were also signed.

Particularly significant purchases were:

 

1. The nineteenth-century manuscript on the history of Putignano by Avv. Giovanni Casulli, three ponderous volumes, unpublished and manuscripts, which contain much of the history of Putignano. With facts and events of a political, administrative, cultural and social nature.

 

2. A copy of the Putignano effemerids, or successes and history of the city of Putignano (1737-1744) by the Dominican Domenico Maria Campanella.

 

Over the years the library and documentary heritage of the library has increased thanks to purchases and donations and today consists of a total of 58,767 bibliographic units.

 

 

The ancient collection consists of about 5,000 volumes worthy of note 395 from the sixteenth century, two of which are printed in Venice by Aldo Manuzio and 710 editions from the seventeenth century. This fund includes around 1,500 volumes from the local Capuchin monastery, all bound in parchment, mainly works of religious subjects. Very rich is the section of Puglia and of local history that attracts scholars from various countries. The magazine includes about three hundred magazines of discontinued and current periodicals, including La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, bound since 1940.