A lecture by Linda Falcone
Maria Luisa Bonelli Righini, November 1966, Museo Galileo Archive
In early November 1966 Fiorella Orlandi walked into the flooded Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence at age 17, on her first afternoon as a ‘Mud Angel’, to rescue damaged books from pervasive mud and naphtha. There were millions of volumes to be wiped clean, pulled apart, washed, dried and restored - so she stayed on at the library for nearly 27 years.
Linda Falcone will explore the experiences of women who played a vital role in Florence, during the flood and its aftermath, and share the insight of modern-day experts who have benefited from their legacy. From chemist Margaret Hey and calligrapher Sheila Waters and their work at the National Library, to museum director Maria Luisa Bonelli Righini, who single handedly saved the most prized possessions of the riverside venue now called Museo Galileo.
Florence was engulfed by 144,000 tons of mud and sludge and the Medici’s limonaia became a hospital for damaged artwork. The most illustrious patient – Cimabue’s Crucifix from Santa Croce – was still under treatment a decade later, in the care of restorers Paola Bracco and Ornella Casazza, whose research and insight changed restoration history.
Women of the Flood is the focus of the forthcoming edition of The Curator’s Quaderno, a notebook-style publication edited by Linda Falcone and published by the Calliope Arts Foundation in collaboration with The Florentine. Lecture participants will receive complimentary access to the publication, available in either digital or printed format.
Linda Falcone is editor of Restoration Conversations and The Curators’ Quaderno. She has been consultant and project coordinator for Calliope Arts from its inception in 2021.
If you are in Florence and would like to attend the lecture in person at the British Institute Library, please register here or send an email to bif@britishinstitute.it
The registration fee is 15 Euro per person.
To join this lecture online, simply click on this link to register and receive the Zoom meeting invitation: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/hQ2_fM7GSeyOJH_-9pbmqA . The virtual doors will open at 18:00 Italian time on Wednesday 11th November.
The recording of the virtual lecture will be available for registered participants only. Clicking on the link above, you authorise the British Institute of Florence to use your image, name and comments.
There is no charge to attend the event on Zoom, but we ask you to consider making a donation to support the Institute and its beautiful library if you wish to attend an event.
This lecture is curated and presented in partnership with Calliope Arts