The collection of newspapers at the Centro Archeologico Italiano (CAI) in Cairo is a unique source of information on the history of Italian immigration in Egypt as well as the larger migratory movements through the Mediterranean and the Middle East at the turn of the 19th century. More broadly, this collection provides a privileged gateway into underexplored aspects of modern Egyptian history. It includes news and commentaries on several aspects of social, cultural, political, and economic life and showcases contemporaries’ views on disparate themes and different scales, ranging from diplomacy or economics in the abstract to, for example, localized interactions among Egypt’s minorities and immigrant communities. These sources’ richness is both textual and visual: every last page of each issue generally consists of advertisements. In spite of a few gaps in the CAI collection, its continuity and scope are unique. These holdings are found nowhere else in the region. A few libraries in Italy only hold scattered issues. Location of digital copies are held at the Italian Institute of Culture in Cairo (IIC); Lucia Carminati (BL EAP principal applicant).
Extent: Information not provided.
Size and dimensions of original material: Height 58.5 cm, width 45 cm, depth between 4 and 8 cm in average.
Condition of original material: The oldest newspapers (1897 -1910) are in bad condition and need urgent restoration. Humidity, wear of time, and different biological agents have contributed to wear out the paper. Even if the original paper contains an high percentage of cellulose, some pages are ripped off or shredded on the edges. There is no safeguard measure in place. The collection is currently locked in wooden shelves with no measure of and no precautions regarding temperature and humidity variations. The only one staff member in charge of the archival materials has no preservation or archival specialization. This lack of modern conservation capacity and skills at the IIC may have led to the accumulation of dust and neglect. The IIC plans to undertake measures to better preserve the collection in the long term but it is unclear whether and when that will happen.
Custodial history: In 1991-1998, Carla Burri, who was then the director of the Italian Institute of Culture in Cairo, purchased the copies she could find on the market.
Arrangement: No information is available on the way in which this collection was first arranged. The only known classification scheme seems to be a sheer chronological order, according to which issues have been bound in consecutive volumes (sometimes with inaccuracies).
Additional: in some cases, a number of related countries provided by the project holder have been documented to their present-day form - Ethiopia, formerly known as Abyssinia; Czechia and Slovakia, formerly known as Czechoslovakia; Tanganyika united with Zanzibar to become present-day Tanzania; Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Iran, historically known as Persia. Present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina. Turkey replaces Ottoman Empire. The historical territory of Prussia comprised of parts of the modern-day nations of Germany, Poland, and Russia, as well as some other nearby nations.
