Who we are
Maria Luisa Russo
is a specialist in the safeguarding, conservation, management, and promotion of archive and library heritage, with wide experience in Italy and abroad. Her training focused on the archive and library field, and covered the many aspects of history, safeguarding and promotion of written cultural heritage: throughout her first degree, masters degree and doctorate, and a number of specialization courses, her studies centered on archive and library heritage and it remains the focus of her work. She loves to combine safeguarding projects with research in the field, and is the author of several publications on the subject. She has worked as a consultant and expert for the Piedmont Region, the University of Turin, and the Autonomous Region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and has been involved for several years as an expert and instructor in international national projects of public and private bodies. Since 2015 she has been affiliated to the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures at the University of Hamburg as co-manager of the project for the safeguard of Timbuktu manuscripts, and is currently coordinator of a research project on Malian manuscripts funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). She also works in collaboration with the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library of Collegeville (Minnesota, USA) and is a lecturer on the course in Conservation of Cultural Heritage in Venaria Reale (SUSCOR).
Timoty Leonardi
is a specialist in the promotion, safeguarding and management of books and historical-artistic heritage. His training has been on the ancient book and on the promotion of the cultural heritage in the ecclesiastical field and since 2010 he has been the Conservator of manuscripts and rare books in the Biblioteca Capitolare and Director of the collections of the Museo del Tesoro del Duomo of Vercelli. From 2010 to 2017 he was Project manager and executive editor of the project "Old and valuable bookbindings in Piedmont", promoted by the Superintendence of Library Heritage of the Piedmont Region and by the Centro Studi Piemontesi. He is a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts of Novara on the course in "Museology and management of exhibition systems". A member of the System Council of the System of Ecclesiastical Libraries of Piedmont (SiBEP) and of the board of the Vercelli Historical Society, he has worked for many years as an expert on national and international projects of public and private bodies.
Vera Favro
is librarian and archivist; she graduated in Art history and then specialized in cataloguing of ancient books; always attentive to the history and management of cultural heritage, she has also developed her training in the field of book preservation and conservation. A founding member of the Coop. Culturalpe, since 2009 she has dealt with projects related to the protection of Cultural Heritage for several customers, including Dioceses of the Piedmont area (Diocese of Susa, Pinerolo, Saluzzo, Fossano, Ivrea), the Court of Appeal of Turin, the Reale Mutua society, the Centro Studi Piemontesi, and the Pinerolo network centre. She annually takes care of organizing small exhibitions dedicated to the ancient book at the Diocesan Library of Pinerolo and is a lecturer in book preservation and conservation at the course for librarians co-financed by the Piedmont Region and organized by the centre Casa di Carità Arti e Mestieri.
Giorgio Mantovani
is a journalist; he graduated in Italian Literature and is currently the editorial director of a company based in Turin that deals with medical and scientific education and information. He is in charge of important publishing and professional updating initiatives at a national and international level, done on new digital technologies. He has always combined his passion for literature and historical-literary research with an equal passion for editorial work, which he has carried out in various fields and through different stages – from editing to printing, from the graphic project to distribution, from paper to digital publishing, to the web. During his research in Italian literature be discovered three letters by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II, to Alessandro Manzoni, preserved at the Braidense library in Milan and published in the review Italian Quarterly, by the Dept. of Italian of Rutgers University (NJ, USA ); he was curator of an exhibition and conference dedicated to the contemporary poetry book at the National Library of Turin, attended by contemporary poets.
