by Laura Giallombardo
The ‘Manodori Sagredo Collection’
A collection of period photographs, about 1165 among positives, stereoscopic positives, stereoscopic slides, postcards and an Underwood Underwood stereoscope, make up the Manodori Sagredo Fund kept in the photographic archive of the Casanatense Library. The Library acquired it in 1995 from Alberto Manodori Sagredo, grandson of Alberto (1866-1935) Prefect of the Kingdom and passionate collector of photographs. The photographs, in albumen and silver bromide gelatine, are in colour and black and white and date from between the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century.
The collection is varied and interesting, the subjects portrayed are many; a considerable number are portraits: individual, group and family portraits; equally numerous are travel photos, landscapes and monuments, followed by holiday scenes at the seaside and in the mountains, photos taken in America by immigrants at the beginning of the new century, scenes of everyday life set in studios and theatre scenes.
The individual and family portraits, initially used by the wealthier classes, later also by the more modest classes, show children, adolescents, men and women of all ages and social classes and entire families posing in photographic studios or outdoors, portrayed in half-length, full-length or three-quarter-length. They bear prestigious signatures such as those of F.lli Alinari, of Giacomo and Carlo Brogi of Florence, portraitists of refined quality; of Alessandro Duroni of Milan, photographer of the greatest Risorgimento exponents; of F.lli Angiolini of Bologna, of De Simoni and Coniugi Canè of Rome, of Francesco Scattola of Venice and many others. The format used is the carte de visite with a cardboard backing decorated with friezes, which often, on the front and back, bears the photographer’s mark, the merits acquired and, written in pen or pencil, dedications and handwritten notes.
Individual portraits include personalities such as Otto Von Bismarck, Costantino Nigra, Garibaldi’s son Ricciotti; theatre actresses and actors such as Ermete Zacconi, Juliette Beaumaire, Madame Favart, Guido Graziosi and Giulietta d’Arienzo; and many children such as ‘Fausta Besi’ dressed as a Dutch girl, ‘Imelda Celeste Vagnozzi’ masquerading as Harlequin and the portrait of a little girl with harp, certainly one of the finest.
The group portraits include a photo of a young Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, with a group of friends in the meadows of Monte Mario; the souvenir photo of the ‘classmates of Normal III C’, portraits of school groups, and extemporaneous portraits such as mothers and children walking in the park, the ‘armed natives in Italian East Africa’, tourists travelling, bathers at the seaside, pilgrims waiting for a blessing at Lourdes, women leaning against the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, etc.
A conspicuous group are the travel photos, the result of the growing interest of the aristocratic and upper middle class of the time in unfamiliar countries near and far. They are views, landscapes and monuments of many European countries and beyond, such as Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, England, Ireland, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Greece, Japan, Turkey, Russia, Syria, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt. The signatures of the great photographers and publishers such as F.lli Alinari and Brogi, as well as Adolphe Block, Ernest Lamy, Albert Papeghin, Jules Marinier, Ernest Le Deley, the company N.P.G. (Neue Photographische Gesellschaft) etc. appear on these photos. Most are stereoscopic reproductions and postcards. 
Stereoscopic photographs – which are glued onto a single cardboard backing – are two ‘twin’ images taken with cameras with two lenses that are about 7 cm apart, like the interpupillary distance and, when viewed with a stereoscope, offer a single three-dimensional image with the optical illusion of relief and depth. The postcard, on the other hand, which has the writing stamped on the back of the holder, does not have the characteristics of a ‘travel’ postcard but those of a simple picture postcard.
The collection of Egyptian photographs* deserves special attention. There are about 126 photos with views and monuments of the most ancient cities: Luxor, Karnak, Alexandria, Giza, Cairo, the Pyramids, the Temples, the Colossi of Memnon, the Tombs of the Mamluks, the Nile, etc… and, to get into the spirit and deep essence of the place, the photographers do not fail to include scenes of everyday life: views of neighbourhoods and villages, markets, fairs, street vendors, shepherds with their flocks, etc.
The aristocratic and upper middle class, in the late 19th and early 20th century, were fascinated by the discovery of unknown civilisations, distant from their own way of living and thinking. They loved to travel, explore faraway places and photograph or buy souvenir photos of the places they had visited or wanted to visit. Many professional photographers became adventurous explorers and gained great experience and international prestige. There are numerous signatures of authors and publishers, such as those of the Englishman Francis Frith, the American Benjamin W. Kilburn, the Austrian Rudolf Lehnert and his partner Heinrich Landrock, the Berlin-based Neue Photographischen Gesellschaft and Underwood Underwood, the largest American distribution company (producer of around ten million stereoscopes); signatures that we find in many specimens held in our collection.
Not to be forgotten in our collection are the twelve black and white photographs of the 1900 Paris World’s Fair, enclosed in a souvenir pouch, and a photograph of the 1862 London World’s Fair.
Finally, a group of very interesting photographs depict ‘genre scenes’ reproduced in the studio or theatrical scenes of plays performed in the theatres of the time. They are stereoscopic, some of them hand-coloured slides in which the colour stands out by letting a light filter through from the back: the effect is definitely striking. Each photo has a title printed on the secondary support: ‘Dressing for the Ball’, for example, depicts some young women getting ready for the ball; ‘The Ballroom – the Belle of the Ball’ shows the belle of the ball being courted by some young men; and ‘Cendrillon. La cour d’ amour ” “La biche au bois. Ballet des carpes‘ “L” Africaine’ and others are the titles of photographs depicting scenes from comedies that were performed in the main Parisian theatres at the time.