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Curator's Statement

ABOUT THE MARIO PRATESI FONDS

The Mario Pratesi fonds contains records that document the professional career of the Tuscan writer as well as records that provide insight into his family history. It is the only Italian-language fonds in the E.J. Pratt Library, which maintains a number of rare books, manuscripts and archival fonds in various subject areas such as art, Canadiana, literature, politics and religious studies.

The Mario Pratesi records, which originally consisted of correspondence, were passed down through his descendants before eventually entering the custody of the grand-daughter of a distant cousin of Pratesi’s who was living in Canada. She got in touch with Anne Urbancic, a professor at Victoria College and a member of the Department of Italian Studies who studied the records until they were formally donated by the owner to the Special Collections in 2009. Since then, multiple accessions of records have been received over the years, and the fonds has grown to include photographs, literary drafts, notebooks and diaries, genealogical records, news clippings and drawings. Now comprised of over 1 metre of textual records and graphic material, the Mario Pratesi fonds is a valuable addition to the Victoria University Library Special Collections, providing significant research material to Victoria University, the University of Toronto and the international scholarly community.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Carteggio Inedito di Mario Pratesi

The Pratesi Project, led by Dr. Anne Urbancic (University of Toronto) and Dr. Carmela Colella (Brock University), brings together images and correspondence from the Mario Pratesi fonds to offer insight into the life of Mario Pratesi. Approximately 1600 items are catalogued for the use of researchers, literary critics, historians, archivists and genealogists. Free registration is required to access the correspondence, which include typed transcriptions--see Registrazione page.

CREDITS

Mario Pratesi (1842-1921): A Centenary Commemoration was curated by Bailey Chui, Special Collections Archivist, with assistance from Carmen Socknat, Head of Bibliographic Services. The website was designed by Abe Lam, Web and Digitization Specialist. Digitization services were provided by Doug Fox, Systems Librarian and Asad Ansari, Systems Technician. Conservation work was conducted by Paul Wilson, Conservator.

We wish to thank Lisa Sherlock, Chief Librarian and Professor Anne Urbancic for their support and guidance.

Tuscany, Italy
Photography by klau53 at flickr