heritage | Alinari Archives

Alinari Heritage

The Alinari photographic heritage is identified, in its consistency and quality, by regional law no. 65/2019, art. 55 and can be divided into analog heritage and digital heritage.

The digital heritage mainly consists of an archive of over 250,000 digitized photographic images (explore the database), along with the related databases and management systems. The images reproduce photographs, particularly positives, belonging to Alinari funds and collections.

The analog heritage, among the largest deposits in the world of photographic documentation, is estimated by the Tuscany Superintendency of Archives and Bibliography to comprise a total of over 5,000,000 photographic items, many of which are unique, dating from 1840 to the present day.

It consists of three main nuclei:

• a. photographic material: positives, prints and photo albums, negatives on both glass plates and film, incunabula (daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, ferrotypes, and other unique items);
• b. bibliographic material: a very rich specialized library, made up of volumes, magazines and rare books, coming from different original nuclei and to be considered among the most qualified sector libraries in Italy and abroad.
• c. instrumental material: photographic equipment, historical atelier tools, accessories and technical instruments that variously testify to the use and practice of photography.

To the archival nuclei is added the fund related to the activity of the Alinari Art Printing House which preserves negatives, prints, commercial catalogs in addition to machinery, including a precious collotype printing machine (a craft printing technique). There is also a collection of objects made from various materials and formats that document the use of photographic images as a decorative element in artisanal production from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. The entire heritage is currently preserved at the Art Defender warehouse in Calenzano (FI), organized in high-security deposits. This is a temporary placement, awaiting the transfer of the archive to new spaces in Florence.

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Consult the Fund Census