Basile Ducrot Collection | UNIPA Heritage

History

The Basile Ducrot Collection contains the Basile Fund (formerly the Basile Endowment), consisting of materials from the Archive and Library of the architects Giovan Battista Filippo Basile (Palermo 1825 – 1891) and Ernesto Basile (Palermo 1857 – 1932), father and son, and the Ducrot Fund, consisting of materials from the Archive and Library of the Palermo furniture industry Ducrot. In the 1950s, the University of Palermo received the documentary material of the Basile architects directly from Roberto Basile, son of Ernesto. Two other funds were subsequently added to the Basile Endowment: in 1971, the documentary materials from the Archive and Library of the Ducrot company (purchased at the Bankruptcy Auction held by the Court of Palermo in 1970); in 1992 the Fund of Educational Tables created in the 1880s, under the direction of G. B. F. Basile, by Michelangelo Giarrizzo on jute canvas supports measuring 2.37 x 1.92 m and originally located in the Great Hall of the former Royal School for Engineers and Architects of Palermo.

The Basile Fund is made up of the Drawing Collection, the Photographic Collection, the Document Collection and the Library. The latter (as far as it has survived) contains 2,915 specimens including volumes and collections of issues of specialized periodicals. The Drawing Collection consists of 2,288 drawings of various formats, created with different techniques and on supports of different sizes and types.

The Ducrot Fund includes: the Photographic Collection of the production of furniture, complete furnishings and specific furnishings and the documentation of the factories and the manufacturing phases (for a total of approximately 4,000 photographic prints and just over a thousand photographic plates); the Technical Office Project Collection; the Catalogue Collection; the Library.

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