Historical Archive – Chamber of Commerce
The historical archive of the Chamber of Commerce, established in Piazza del Municipio 48, preserves some information regarding the business activity of the Modigliani and Garsin families.
The visit to discover these complex and fascinating events is also an opportunity to get to know the incredible archive of about 16,000 archive units, among which stand out the files related to the corporate brands, the circular letters of the fund “Ancient companies of Livorno” and documentation on port traffic.
The Modigliani and Garsin families operated in Livorno in the 1800s: the Modigliani moved here from Rome in the middle of the century, while the Garsin, although divided with Marseille, are a historic Livorno family as early as 1700s. In 1801, on the other hand, was also established the Chamber of Commerce itself, with a first junta representative of the reality of the time: only four members are “Tuscan”: the others are French, English, Greek, Jewish, Swiss…
The Garsin, more economically prosperous, operate in the merchant trade between Livorno, Marseille and London, and are often traced in the chamber cards; about the Modigliani there are information regarding both the activity of Amedeo’s paternal grandfather, and that of the three brothers Flaminio (father of the painter) Alberto and Isaac: among the papers, it is possible to read about the failure that has so conditioned the events of the Modigliani, but also of the subsequent rebirth at the work mainly of the women of the family, and discover the extraordinary figure of Eugenia, mother of Amedeo, who we find engaged in the “trade of the zest” of cedar, oranges and lemons.
The chamber library also holds a volume dedicated to another significant figure of the Modigliani family: Giuseppe Emanuele, Amedeo’s older brother. This is the biography written by the lawyer Giuseppe Funaro and published in 1952, a few days after the inauguration of the monument erected in the memory of the Honorable and placed in the Villa Fabbricotti in Livorno.
The Library (26 thousand modern monographs, 2200 ancient texts and 30 thousand periodic volumes) is open to the public and can be visited at the same time as the historical archive.
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