E pluribus unum, ex uno plura. Aggregazioni e dispersioni del patrimonio librario-archivistico nelle città italiane con la soppressione degli ordini religiosi dopo l’Unità

We focus on the formation of a large number of municipal libraries in Italy in the second half of nineteenth century, as a result of the expropriation of ecclesiastical (monastic) bibliographic collections, of primarily theological-devotional content. Such (improper) inheritance was practically imposed by the laws, and perhaps it has been an obstacle against the development of modern and efficient public library services throughout our country.