ISMEO – International Association for Mediterranean and Eastern Studies, established in 2012 with the aim of continuing the scientific work of the dissolved IsIAO. In collaboration with the Museum of Civilizations (Museo delle Civiltà) and the National Central Library of Rome (Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Roma), ISMEO is engaged in the management and enhancement of its extensive archival, bibliographic, cartographic, museum, and photographic heritage.

"Archivi IsMEO-IsIAO" is a platform for the description and publication of the non-bibliographic and manuscript heritage of the IsIAO collections currently held at the National Central Library of Rome and at the Museum of Civilizations. 

It is composed of four documentary nuclei:

• Photographic collections of the Italian Institute for the Middle and the Far East (Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente) at the Museum of Civilizations 

• Photographic collections of the “IsIAO Library” - African and Oriental Collections Room of BNCR (“Biblioteca IsIAO” – sala delle collezioni africane e orientali della BNCR)

• Archival documents, documentary collections, and unpublished works of the “IsIAO Library” - African and Oriental Collections Room of BNCR (“Biblioteca IsIAO” – sala delle collezioni africane e orientali della BNCR)

• Manuscript and Woodcut Collections of the “IsIAO Library” - African and Oriental Collections Room of BNCR (“Biblioteca IsIAO” – sala delle collezioni africane e orientali della BNCR)

Photographic collections of the Italian Institute for the Middle and the Far East (Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente) at the Museum of Civilizations 

It documents the activity of IsMEO at the National Museum of Oriental Art from 1956 to 1995. The collection, consisting of over 500,000 items, is composed into four series:

• Excavation Centre - negatives (excavations and restorations conducted by the Italian Archaeological Missions of IsMEO and various associated exploration);

• Excavation Center - prints (selected of photographic prints with captions regarding excavations and restorations condicted by IsMEO);

• Excavation Center - slides (excavations and restorations conducted by IsMEO and various associated exploration);

• Depository - negatives (documentation of travels, scientific missions, artifacts, artworks and other, deposited by IsMEO collaborators; includes the so-called "Tucci photographic fund").

Photographic collections of the “IsIAO Library” - African and Oriental Collections Room of National Central Library of Rome

1. Photographic Archive of the Ministry of Italian Africa

   Created from the 1956 merger of the photographic collections of the Colonial Museum (Museo coloniale) in Rome with those of the Italian Colonial Institute (Istituto coloniale italainao) as a fundamental repository of the institutional visual memory of Italian colonial history, it constitutes a historical testimony of inestimable scientific value. Most of the materials preserved in it (about 500,000 items including prints and negatives) are related to former Italian colonies and more generally to the Italian colonial experience.

2. IsMEO Collection

   It consists of about 4,000 pieces including negatives and prints (some collected in photo albums) related to exhibitions, conferences, meetings and events organized by the Institute in more than sixty years of activity.

3. Photographic Collection of Sabatino Moscati

   Sabatino Moscati (1922-1997) was vice president of the Institute for the Orient (Istituto per l’Oriente), president of IsMEO (1978-79) and founder of the journal Archeo. His important photographic collection consists of 40 photo albums (about 4,800 photographs with captions, mainly documenting sites and artifacts from Sardinia, Sicily and Tunisia), 11 boxes of loose photographs in various formats (about 1,000, mostly from sites in Sardinia), 15 slide binders (about 6,300, with captions).

Archival documents, documentary collections, and unpublished works of the “IsIAO Library” - African and Eastern Collections Room of the National Central Library of Rome

Documentary material that, at the time of the closure of the Italian Institute for Africa and the East (Istituto italiano per il medio ed estremo oriente) in 2011, although destined for the Diplomatic Historical Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Intranational Cooperation (Archivio storico diplomatico del Ministero degli esteri e della cooperazione internazionale), was instead transferred to the “IsIAO Library”.

1. Gualtiero Benardelli Collection 

   Galtiero Benardelli (1904-1972) was an officer in the Ministry of Colonies (Ministero delle colonie), later the Ministry of Italian Africa (Ministero dell’Africa italiana), who after the war pursued a diplomatic career. From 1949 to 1959 he served in the Italian Trusteeship of Somalia (Amministrazione fiduciaria italiana della Somalia, AFIS), becoming vice-secretary general. The documentation, donated in September 2003 to IsIAO by his son Mainardo, relates to this latter period. It consists of 6 envelopes containing dossiers produced in carrying out his duties, typed notes and reports sent to the Ministery of Foreign Ministry (Ministero degli affari esteri). It also contains documentation related to his archaeological explorations.

2. Colonial Museum of Rome Documentary Collection

   This was part of the documentation collected by officials of the Colonial Museum (Museo coloniale), later Museum of Italian Africa (Museo dell’Africa italiana), for the setting up of the “Pioneers and Explorers Room” (“Sala pionieri ed esploratori”). It consists of 62 folders, correspondence and documents of Italian travelers and colonial officials between the 19th and 20th centuries. It is accompanied by an inventory, a list of documents that were part of the collection but displaied in the museum, and a file that briefly describes each document. The collection was studied by Cesira Filesi in the late 1970s (C. Filesi, L'Archivio del Museo africano in Roma, Rome: IIA, 1980. Second ed. revised and expanded: Rome: IsIAO, 2001).

3. “Micacchi Report” 

   This represents an example of an original document (over 500 pages) accompanied by an extensive photographic appendix, compiled by Rodolfo Micacchi (?-1947), head of the Schools and Archaeological Services Office (Ufficio Scuole e servizi archeologici) in Libya during the Italian occupation, to document the excavation, restoration and conservation activities promoted by the Italian Archaeological Missions (Missioni archeologiche italiane) between 1910 and 1943. Also preserved are 9 folders marked “Documentation of the Regia Soprintendenza” (“Documentazione della Regia Soprintendenza”), containing the original annotated manuscript, a type version of this, some offprints, and 8 files corresponding to as many photographic appendices, dedicated to different Libyan archaeological sites (Pisida, Sabratha, Gargaresc, Tripoli, Leptis Magna, Agedabia, Benghazi, Tocra, Barce, Ptolemais, Cyrene).

Manuscript and Woodcut Collections at the “IsIAO Library” - African and Eastern Collections Room of the National Central Library of Rome

1. Tucci Tibetan Collection 

   It consists of over 2,600 volumes, manuscripts and xylographs, all catalogued (E. De Rossi Filibeck, Catalogue of the Tucci Tibetan Fund, 2 vols. Rome: ISMEO: ISIAO, 1994-2003.; E. De Rossi Filibeck, “Tucci Tibetan Collection: addenda,” in Traditional paths, innovative approaches and digital challenges in the study of Tibetan manuscripts and xylographs, edited by M. Clemente. Rome: ISMEO; Scienze e Lettere, 2021, p. 137-165). Digitization of the volumes is in progress.

2. Tucci Sanskrit Collection 

   It is composed of 357 negatives, about 650 photographic prints, 7 microfilms, 43 films, 53 manuscripts in Devanagari on Nepali paper, with the addition 8 negatives already at the National Museum of Oriental Art (Museo nazionale d’arte orientale), now at Museum of Civilization (Museo delle Civiltà). All have been catalogued (F. Sferra, “Sanskrit manuscripts and photographs of Sanskrit manuscripts in Giuseppe Tucci's Collection,” in Sanskrit texts from Giuseppe Tucci's Collection. Part 1, edited by F. Sferra. Rome: Italian Institute for Africa and the East, 2008, p. 15-78).

3. Dubbiosi Collection

   It consists of 223 Arab-Yemeni manuscripts, 4 lithographs, 3 printed books, part of the periodical al-Īmān yamān wa al-ḥikmat yamāniyya, and some maps, printed and manuscript, of Yemen and Eritrea (L. Declich, Emilio Dubbiosi and the Dubbiosi Fund, “East and West,” n.s., 2 (61), 2021, no. 1). The manuscripts have been digitized thanks to an agreement between ISMEO - The International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies (ISMEO - Associazione internazionale di studi sul Mediterraneo e l'Oriente), the National Central Library of Rome (Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Roma), the Accademia dei Lincei and the Institute for Advanced Study of Princeton; the publication, along with a catalogue, is awaited on the IAS website.