Nearly six decades after the Arno burst its banks, Florence is once again turning tragedy into collective action. In the lead-up to the 60th anniversary of the 1966 flood, the National Central Library of Florence (BNCF) has introduced an ambitious community-driven effort to restore 30,000 books that have remained inaccessible for decades.
The initiative turns remembrance into participation. Students, volunteers and local residents are stepping into the role of curators, helping to identify and reintegrate collections of texts that lost their cataloguing references in the chaos of 1966.
Back then, the flood affected over a million items in the library’s holdings, including hundreds of thousands of books, periodicals and pamphlets. Even more critically, catalogues and inventories, the very tools needed to locate materials, were also damaged. While restoration efforts in the ensuing years were monumental, tens of thousands of works were left in limbo, stripped of their identity.
That gap is now being addressed through a renewed spirit of cooperation, echoing the legacy of the “Mud Angels”, the volunteers who famously came to the help of Florence in 1966. The BNCF has partnered with the Liceo Classico Michelangiolo high school, the Municipality of Florence and the BiblioteCaNova Isolotto library to bring together expertise and civic engagement.
Through a structured school-work programme, high school students are working alongside librarians to examine the flood-damaged miscellanies, using catalogue research to reconnect each item with its original record. The project has also drawn in adult volunteers, particularly from the BiblioteCaNova Isolotto, a public library that has become a bridge between the national institution and the wider community. Following a series of lectures earlier this year, dozens of local residents have joined the effort under the banner CURA, Communities United for the Restoration of Flood-Damaged Materials, receiving training before contributing hands-on work at the BNCF.
“The aim is not to outsource library work to volunteers, but to involve citizens in a process of understanding and caring for heritage,” explains BNCF director Elisabetta Sciarra. “It’s about education as much as recovery.”
Alongside the recovery work, the library is also investing in research and training. A summer school scheduled for June and July 2026 will bring together young graduates to catalogue manuscript fragments uncovered during past restoration efforts, some of which came to light only because the flood destroyed the bindings that once concealed them.
All roads lead to November 4, when the library will present the results of this two-year effort in a public seminar marking the anniversary.
