The Multimedia Archive

The Bank of Italy's multimedia archive houses the films, videos and sound recordings produced by the Bank in the course of its activities as well as multimedia materials from other institutions.

The structure of this collection was only recently finalized, following substantial accessions from the various units of the Bank.

The collection of audiovisual materials first began to form in the 1960s, when it was decided to start filming the annual General Meeting of Shareholders. Those recordings now constitute one of the largest and most valuable series in the archive, and include the presentations of the Governor's Concluding Remarks, starting from Guido Carli's mandate.

From the same period, there are audiovisual recordings made by the Bank on an occasional basis, to document particularly significant construction projects such as the building, designed by the architect Pier Luigi Nervi, to house the new banknote printing workshops on Via Tuscolana in Rome.

More recently, the collections have documented institutional events, such as the biennial Paolo Baffi Lectures and the annual ceremonies for employees reaching thirty years of service, as well as conferences, study days and workshops, and occasional celebrations (such as the Centenary of the Bank of Italy in 1993 and the study days dedicated to Donato Menichella in 1986).

One series is formed by the audiovisual materials produced by the Bank as part of the Oral History project, which began in 1996. It was designed as a collection of oral testimonies for the use of scholars, providing a new kind of resource for historical research, particularly in the areas that fall within the remit of the Bank's institutional duties. The project consists of interviews with leading figures in the monetary, financial and banking fields, and includes interviews over the years with a number of senior officers of the Bank.

The archive also contains a body of material from foreign central banks, produced between the end of the Second World War and the 1960s, documenting their institutional activities and financial education initiatives.

The Multimedia Archive is being automated as part of a project to digitize the multimedia collection and integrate it with the resources already available for consultation at the Archives' reading room.