NEWS

On March 3, in the Mario Mengoli Auditorium at the Centro di Studi Malaspiniani, occurred the presentation of the book Libri i Destini, in the presence of the author, Prof. Loris J. Bononi,
and of the Mayor of Mulazzo, Prof. Roberto Malaspina. Prof. Bononi has illustrated fully the good sense of his project to create in Lunigiana a "literary park" devoted to the publishers and authors of the region, with a series of museums and archival centres located in castles and historic buildings, from Fivizzano to Mulazzo, by way of Castiglione del Terziere, Aulla, Terrarossa, Bagnone and Pontremoli. In this project the figure of Alexandro Malaspina will be accorded a fitting profile.

DONATIONS

Prof. Rossana Piccioli has donated to the Centro di Studi Malaspiniani an important archival  resource (containing over six hundred documents), including the private letters and other  unpublished documents of Manfredo Giuliani (who was the first scholar in Lunigiana to devote attention to Alexandro Malaspina), Ubaldo Formentini and other illustrious researchers into regional history. These documents, which are currently being catalogued, will be transferred to CD-ROM and made available to the public within a few months.
 

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED

G.B. MARINI BETTOLO, La collaborazione scientifica tra Italia e Spagna per la conoscenza delle risorse naturali del Nuovo Mondo, Naples, Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici, 1991, pp. 110 + il.

The book is a collection of five lectures given by the author on the theme "The rôle of the Accademia dei Lincei in the understanding of the New World", and therefore the research concerns mainly the 16th and 17th centuries.

We draw your attention to this article because it is not impossible that among the items referred to in it one might discover documents relating to some of the officers of the Malaspina Expedition (for example, Felipe Bauzá and José de Espinosa). We notice, among the officials of the Napoleonic government, the Count of Montarco; it would be interesting to know if this is the same person as the one who, as secretary of the Consejo de Estado, played a far from secondary part in the incrimination of Alexandro Malaspina on the charge of having plotted against the state.

PUBLISHING NOTES AND COMMENTS

Robert J. KING, «Francisco Muñoz y San Clemente and his "Reflexions on the English Settlements of New Holland"», The British Library Journal, London, vol. 25, no. 1, Spring 1999, pp. 55-76.

The author, with his usual meticulousness, demonstrates the influence of the ideas of the officer Francisco Muñoz on the thought of Alexandro Malaspina. Malaspina, who had a good rapport with Muñoz, knew and made partial use of a memoir of Australia compiled by him. This is an opportune moment for the publication of the English translation of this memoir.