Luigi De Marchi
(Director 1888-1903)
(Milan, 1857-1936)
Luigi De Marchi studied mathematics and physics in Pavia as a student of the College Ghislieri. Since 1881, as librarian in Rome, Cremona and Milan, he was transferred in 1888 in Pavia with the task of direction.
He was author of the important purchase of the library of Alfonso Corradi, which began cataloging and sold duplicates to balance the more and more difficult budget of the Institute. In its acquisition policy, he favored magazine subscriptions, sponsors of the "modernity" of the Library. It was also a proponent of the new bibliographic techniques. In 1897 he gave a report to the Florence Conference on decimal classification, then writing La classificazione così detta decimale del Sig. Dewey (Extrait du Bullettin de l'Institut international de Bibliographie; Bruxelles, Inst. Int. de Bibliographie, 1897; location: Misc. 4 1403 4).
The most important result by De Marchi was the Inventario dei manoscritti della R. Biblioteca Universitaria di Pavia (PDF, 14.7 MB) regarding the Aldini Stock.
In 1903 with his appointment as Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Padua, De Marchi began a brilliant academic career with assignments and publications: like handbooks, textbooks for secondary schools and numerous entries of the the Enciclopedia italiana.
Elected senator in 1934, he died in 1936.