Our History

The core of the Titta Ruffo Library starts at the beginning of the 900’s with the work of notorious baritone Titta Ruffo, reading enthusiast, who built his first literary collections, mainly consisting of theatrical and literary works. These were finely bound and customized, bearing personalized nameplates (ex libris). But the real “author” of the Library was his son, Ruffo Titta jr, who used his outstanding bibliophile inclinations to expand and enrich the collections, using an actual library as working model; with the help of skilled professional librarians, he followed strict organizational, filing and indexing criteria such as space management, card cataloging, subject indexing and shelf marking, just to name a few.

The next step in this important heritage’s journey came with the migration of the library from its roman home to the Palazzo of Campofilone.

The paper catalogue was replaced by the online version while the Library joined the National Library Service (Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale), a choice that was supported by the Civic Library “Romolo Spezioli” in Fermo, which also assisted the delicate operation. This choice was driven by the knowledge of the importance of publicizing and promoting existing collections, fighting off the potential loss or dispersion of parts of our cultural heritage and making all of it available for anyone who’d be interested.

The Titta Bernardini Library comprises various collections of books, pictures, archives and records belonging to Titta Ruffo and Ruffo Titta jr in addition to the Paolo Ruffo Bernardini book collection, dedicated to the sea. Hence the name: Titta Bernardini Library.

Among the various collections within the Library, Ruffo Titta jr reserved a particular section to book history and all related subjects such as library sciences, bibliography, bibliology, antique trade and collecting.

The entire collection can be viewed on the BiblioMarcheSud platform.