La celluloide e il museo. Un esperimento di "cineteca" militare all'ombra della prima Guerra di Libia (1911-1912)

During the course of 2011, two spools of newsreels dating back to 1911 were found in the Historical Museum of the Bersaglieri (Museo Storico dei Bersaglieri). The event leads us to wonder about when these spools were given to the museum and why such a donation was made. Using the findings themselves as sources, together with film magazines, articles of the time and military archive documents that have come down to us, this essay recreates the historical context in which the donation actually took place and the cultural background against which such a decision was made. The conclusion that can be drawn is that the idea of keeping the two films in the museum met needs that were very strongly felt at the time, but which were, however, quite far from the reasoning behind the emergence of the first film libraries and archives.