The power of reading

The Circulating Catholic Library was one of those classic little/big ideas that affect reality. Don Lolli gave new life to the concept, which had been founded by Don Giovanni Buzzi (1846-1902) some years earlier. The new development was set in motion on 3 March 1910, and continued for no less than 25 years. The premises were in Via Paolo Costa, at number 18. Don Lolli’s Library was part of a more extensive movement that was begun just after the Unification of Italy, which envisaged the opening of numerous libraries throughout the territory of the new-born nation. There were two objectives: the propagation of knowledge in rural areas, and that this carried out uniformly. Of course, Don Lolli’s Circulating Library was a Catholic library with the aim – like other similar initiatives brought together in the “Italian Federation of Catholic Libraries” – to promote knowledge of Christian inspiration in a context where socialist, anti-clerical thinking seemed to prevail.

“My greatest wish is to obtain good books, really good in every respect.”
Don Angelo Lolli (1909)