In October 2022, the National University Library of Turin inaugurated a permanent exposition entirely dedicated to the books belonged to the queen Margherita of Savoy (1851-1926).
In the popular imagination, Margherita of Savoy embodied an exemplary model of sovereignty, in which the awareness and pride of being part of one of the oldest royal House of Europe was combined with the proximity to the people and a lively passion for culture. In this regard, the wide library collection collected by the queen during her entire life testifies the appeal that the intellectual world exerted on her, as well as the eclectic taste of a curious woman, lover of Italian and European literature, figurative arts, poetry, music and the most original aspects of the society of her time.
During 2022, the entire library collection – consisting of 13.560 books – was the object of a new ambitious project, promoted by the National University Library in collaboration with Culturalpe s.c., aiming at the preservation, enhancement and free use of the collection through the inventory revision and the digital cataloguing of all its books, in function of its transfer from the storage to an exposition room of the Library, with a permanent set-up aiming at developing the widest and transversal knowledge possible.
What strikes the most is the huge potential of the books: not only for the richness of many bindings made specifically for the queen and the sophistication of the guard-leaves that protect the texts, but also for the practical use of this collection. In fact, next to the precious volumes, there are many “common” books, that could be easily found in the library of a general reader. The queen has carefully read this collection, as proved by the many handwritten notes. In this manner, autograph notes, dedications, guard-leaves, along with the ex-libris (in fact, in the Library there are also books of Vittorio Emanuele II, Umberto I and her daughter in law Elena), help the scholar and the contemporary visitor to explore and revive the myth of a queen who was able to unite Italy from North to South, from top to bottom, from book clubs to crowds.
The exposition, divided into thematic groups, proposes some in-depth themes and exposes more than 120 volumes belonged to the first queen of Italy.
Next to the books, it is possible to find some period objects and a bust of the queen Margherita, specially made using 3D scanning technology and based on the original bust preserved at the Royal Museums of Turin – Palazzo Reale.
