Textile Museum of Prato: literary fund and archive of textile samples of Prato

Presentation of the library

The Textile Museum has a collection of books of 4000 volumes covering various aspects of local and international textile culture. The fund was established in 1975, the year of the opening of the museum at the "Tullio Buzzi" Institute.

The books treat about topics and specific content of the textile culture: raw materials, textile technology, design, history of textile in Europe and elsewhere, contemporary textile art, history of fashion and costume.

The volumes are monographs, exhibition catalogues, essays, manuals, encyclopaedias (from the end of the eighteenth century of the nineteenth century up to the present).

The library fund is supported by a heritage of sample books of local enterprises (from the second half of the nineteenth century to the twentieth, to the contemporary).

A special fund covers a collection of about 2000 fashion plates (late eighteenth century - half of the nineteenth century) donated to the Museum, as well as some fashion magazines from the first half of the twentieth century.

The library, which is currently being catalogued, is sorted by categories: the history of textiles, fashion and costume history, textile traditions of non-European cultures, textile technology, local section, contemporary textile art, rare funds, magazines. The literary heritage is currently being catalogued.

Resources

• Owned books: 4000;
• Current periodicals: 2;
• Special collections: fashion plates, fashion magazines of the twentieth century;
• Video and multimedia materials: 40;
• Photo library.

Service

Consultation at the Museum. Loan excluded.