Institute Giovanni Treccani for the publication of the Italian Encyclopedia (), also known as Treccani Institute or simply Treccani, is a cultural institution of national interest, active in the publishing field, founded by
Giovanni Treccani and
Giovanni Gentile
Giovanni Gentile ( , ; 30 May 1875 – 15 April 1944) was an Italian pedagogue, philosopher, and politician.
He, alongside Benedetto Croce, was one of the major exponents of Italian idealism in Italian philosophy, and also devised his own sys ...
in 1925.
It is known for publishing the first edition and the subsequent ten supplements of the ''Italian Encyclopaedia of Science, Literature and Arts'' ().
History
The Institute of the Italian Encyclopaedia was founded in Rome in 1925 by Giovanni Treccani, with the philosopher Giovanni Gentile as editor-in-chief. The first publication by the Institute was the ''Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere e Arti'' (). This
encyclopaedia, best known as ''Enciclopedia Italiana'' or the ''Great Encyclopaedia'', is an
Italian-language
Italian (, , or , ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. It evolved from the colloquial Latin of the Roman Empire. Italian is the least divergent language from Latin, together with Sardinian language, Sardinian. It is ...
encyclopaedia and is regarded as one of the great encyclopaedias, being international in scope, alongside ''
Encyclopædia Britannica
The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...
'' and others.
Since the 1990s, Treccani has been playing a leading role as a high-profile publisher, both in the art publishing market and in the facsimile editions industry, reproducing many medieval
manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...
s from the most prestigious Italian and European libraries. Alongside these traditional activities Treccani has gained a consistent presence in
digital publishing, with the publication of e-books, apps and, above all, the Treccani.it portal, which had been visited in 2022 by more than 80 million unique users.
Publishing and works
The first edition of the ''Great Encyclopaedia'' was published serially between 1929 and 1937.
The encyclopaedia's 35 volumes (plus one index volume) included 60,000 articles and 50 million words. Each volume is approximately 1,015 pages, and supplementary volumes were published between 1938 and 2020.
10th Appendix
An update to the ''Great Encyclopaedia'', the 10th Appendix is a reflection by Treccani on contemporaneity. Its challenges and problematic issues are analyzed through over 350 keywords assigned to authors of the highest scientific profile and to young scholars who have now established themselves at the international level.
''Biographical Dictionary of the Italians''
This work is a monumental national biography constructed from over forty thousand biographies of Italians who have contributed to the artistic, cultural, political, scientific, religious, literary and economic history of the country, from the fall of the
Western Roman Empire
In modern historiography, the Western Roman Empire was the western provinces of the Roman Empire, collectively, during any period in which they were administered separately from the eastern provinces by a separate, independent imperial court. ...
to the present day.
Contemporary art
This is a work in 4 volumes, edited by Vincenzo Trione and Valeria Della Valle, supported by an international scientific committee: a survey of the art of our time, with the aim of documenting, in the broadest and most inclusive perspective, the various components that make up the system of art throughout the world. The work catalogues not only the artists themselves, but also art historians, critics and curators, gallerists, merchants and dealers.
''Italian Enterprise''
In two volumes, edited by
Franco Amatori and
Marco D'Alberti, this work recounts the most significant entrepreneurial, technological and scientific developments in the history of Italy. "The Stories", with its wide selection of biographies of the most representative industrial enterprises, aims to provide a picture of Italian companies in their variety of size, territory, sector, and governance. "The Context" frames thematic essays that recount the history of Italian enterprise in its complex operating context, in its relationship with institutions and politics, and in the competitive scene of globalization.
Facsimile reproductions
Facsimile reproductions of illuminated manuscripts kept in the most important European libraries contribute to the conservation and diffusion of an immense common artistic and literary heritage. The latest publications are those of the magnificent code preserved in
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
in the
Laurentian Library
The Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana or BML) is a historic library in Florence, Italy, containing more than 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books. Built in a cloister of the Medicean Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze u ...
, with the signature Plut. 6.23, an 11th–12th-century
Gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...
book, accompanied by a systematic illustrative apparatus. The 237 folios contain 285 illustrations. As Tania Velmans defines it in the essay published in the volume accompanying the facsimile (''Il Tetravangelo della Laurenziana'', Florence, Laur. Plut. 6.23, 2020), it is "an almost unique specimen for the abundance of his illustrations, fidelity to the evangelical texts, the will to reconstruct the evangelical story through the image, in an almost integral way" (p. 36).
See also
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Lists of encyclopedias
References
External links
{{Authority control
Encyclopedias in Italian
Italian encyclopedias
20th-century encyclopedias
Encyclopedias about countries
General encyclopedias