LIBRARY PAGES: BIBLIOTECA E BOTTEGA FIORETTA MAZZEI || ITS ONLINE CATALOGUE || HOW TO RUN A LIBRARY || MANUSCRIPT FACSIMILES || MANUSCRIPTS || MUSEUMS || FLORENTINE LIBRARIES, MUSEUMS || HOW TO BUILD CRADLES AND LIBRARIES || BOTTEGA || PUBLICATIONS || LIMITED EDITIONS || LIBRERIA EDITRICE FIORENTINA || SISMEL EDIZIONI DEL GALLUZZO || FIERA DEL LIBRO || FLORENTINE BINDING || CALLIGRAPHY WORKSHOPS || BOOKBINDING WORKSHOPS

Versione in italiano

THE MEDIATHECA 'FIORETTA MAZZEI'

IN FLORENCE'S 'ENGLISH' CEMETERY

BOOK AND MEDIA CATALOGUE ON LINE

You can search a particular reference term, for instance, author and book title, on the World Wide Web or within this particular website, http://www.florin.ms, about Florence, using the search engine below:

Search WWW Search www.florin.ms

ALEPH=Bible Commentaries/ Hebraism, Holocaust, Islam/ Alphabet, Babylonian/Egyptian, Hebrew Bible, Greek Testament, Bible, Early Christianity, Desert Fathers, Greek/Russian Orthodoxy, Latin Christianity, Celtic Christianity, Anglo-Saxon Christianity, Hagiography, Medieval, Renaissance Bible, Women in Christianity, Liturgy/Cathechism/Magisterium, Church Today, Modern Contemplative Theology, Modern Hagiography/Biography, Children
BETH=Monastic Orders: Benedictine, Brigittine, Carmelite, Carthusian, Dominican, Franciscan/ Clarissan, Newer Orders, Modern Communities, Anglican || Medieval Studies, Women in Middle Ages, Beguine, Anchoress, Hermit, Julian of Norwich, Oblates of Santa Francesca Romana, Pilgrimage, Lollard, Quaker, etc., Comparative Religions
GIMEL=Classics, Greek, Latin, Medieval Latin, Modern Languages: French, Provencal, Italian, || Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dictionaries || Grammars, Handbooks on Style || Florence's Political Theologians: Don Giulio Facibeni, Giorgio La Pira, Fioretta Mazzei, Pietro Parigi, Don Lorenzo Milani, Giannozzo Pucci, Amicizia Ebraico-Cristiana || Rom Studies || Encyclopedias
DALETH=Icelandic and British Literature: Icelandic, Old English, Welsh, Arthurian, Anglo-Norman, Middle English, Drama, Chaucer, Langland, Pearl, Renaissance, Seventeenth Century, Eighteenth Century, Blake, Letters, Short Story, Novel
HE=Twentieth Century Literature, Poetry, Trauma, Women, Australian, Black, Native American || Nineteenth Century Literature, keyed to tombs in "English" Cemetery, Florence [shelved in this order, though catalogued chronologically], Criticism
VAU=Music, Glorney Bolton, Eileen Bolton, Julia Bolton Holloway publications
ZAYIN=Toscana, Italy, Travel, Art History, Codicology/ Paleography, Handcrafts
KHETH=Electronic and Microform Library, e-books on-line, CDs in library, microfilms of medieval and nineteenth-century manuscripts, slides, etc.
TAU='English' Cemetery archives
 

Library Webpages: Bibliography || Biblioteca e Bottega Fioretta Mazzei || Library Catalogue || Suggestions on How to Run a Library || Manuscript Facsimile Publishing Houses || Manuscripts || Museum Thoughts || Florentine Libraries and Museums || How to Build Cradles and Libraries || Bottega|| Publications|| Limited Edition || Libreria Editrice Fiorentina || SISMEL Edizioni del Galluzzo || Fiera del Libro || Florentine Binding || Calligraphy Workshop || Bookbinding Workshop

For a blog on the most beautiful libraries in the world:
http://curiousexpeditions.org/2007/09/a_librophiliacs_love_letter_1.htm

he Mediatheca 'Fioretta Mazzei', which began in 2000 as the Biblioteca and Bottega 'Fioretta Mazzei', is partner to Florence's 'English' Cemetery. The English' Cemetery in Florence is actually Swiss-owned (as it always has been since its purchase from the Grand-Duke in 1827), is international and is ecumenical, formerly having been for the burial of non-Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox, now being open for the burial of ashes for all, including Catholics. The Cemetery is itself a cultural record, a history book, written on marble with letters from the Hebrew, Greek, Cyrillic and Roman Alphabets (which are all one family), written in the English, French, German, Italian, Romansch, Russian, German, Dutch, Danish, Latin, Greek and Hebrew languages. Many of its tombs have Biblical verses incised upon them. They have stories to tell of the nineteenth century, of Italy's Risorgimento, of all Europe, of the whole world (there are tombs as well of Australians and of Canadians, of those born in America, Africa, India, and of a black Nubian former slave). We invite all to read it, whether on the web, in the CD we publish of it, or by visiting it. Or best of all, all three.

e inaugurated the Mediatheca Fioretta Mazzei in the former studio of Shakespeare's last living descendant in the Gatehouse of the Protestant Cemetery, owned by the Swiss Evangelical Church, 18 September 2000. The Gatehouse, though built in the nineteenth century, was drastically modernized by an architect. We restored the room for the library to what the nineteenth century valued, the medieval/Tudor style of architecture, specifically borrowing from the Bodleian Library and from William Morris for our inspiration. The Library's bookcases I built of wood, by hand, in August, 2000, using wrought iron fleur de lys crosses at its corners like those in the Bodleian Library and made by a blacksmith here in Settignano. My oldest son, a master carpenter building libraries for millionaires in Philadelphia, gave us advice. We grieve over the replacement in many libraries, including those in monasteries, of shelving in plastic and metal, preferring what is hand-wrought. We use Florentine Savonarola chairs. The room that was formerly Shakespeare's last descendant's studio, now contains volumes of Shakespeare's Plays. It is our hope that Brody Neuenschwander will calligraph on its beams Fioretta Mazzei's aphorisms in blue and green. We seek an iron circular staircase to give us more room in the library (this item is inexpensive, can be purchased from a catalogue and would be in the building's Victorian style). We are above flood level, an important consideration in Florence which built its major libraries on the Arno river and at river level.

Bodleian Library, showing chained books of circa 1598-1602, similar to Laurentian-Medicean Library, Florence

Shelf bracket, strengthening and hiding joins

Bruno 's lilied crosses modeled from the Bodleian Library's, in brass and in wrought iron, each taking an hour to make, against the marbled paper we make for binding books.

Though in the end we marbled paper ourselves when we studied how to bind and restore books.

Because we stress monastic and contemplative - rather than university and scholastic - studies, we seek the combination of work, study, prayer, using the body, mind and soul, in balance, in the love of God and neighbour. We have a workroom or bottega next to our library or biblioteca, with a great table made from the cypresses here in 1860, upon which we can restore tomb sculpture, bind books, marble paper, frame paintings, and which can also be used for exhibitions. We own a book press, a sewing frame, and other nineteenth-century book-binding tools from my convent, with which we produce and publish hand-crafted books created in connection with the Cemetery and with the Library (we would appreciate smaller book-binding characters for embossing titles in gold on leather spines and labels, the ones I now have being too large for most books), whose sale enables the restoration of tombs. We also hold classes in marbling paper and book-binding. Our publishing house, like our association, is named 'Aureo Anello', from the words incised on the plaque at Casa Guidi in Florence stating that Elizabeth Barrett Browning made of her poetry a golden ring between Italy and the English-speaking world. A library and a publishing house together can be a place where books beget books, as was done in monasteries and convents and which secular universities have not understood in their modern managerial pressure to publish or perish. We have exhibition space. We have exhibited the bust of Hiram Powers' 'Greek Slave'. We concurrently have exhibitions of rare books associated with our burials, of the original Alinari and Brogi sepia photographs of Florence my Anglican Mother Foundress had purchased in the nineteenth century, and of Karen Graffeo's photographs of Romanian and Yugoslavian Roma families. We have space also for small lectures and for seminars.

ne becomes a member of our Aureo Anello Associazione through giving the Mediatheca 'Fioretta Mazzei' a book.The library from this practice has doubled its holdings in ten years. It is ecumenical, based on the Alphabet, the Bible, the Gospel, on women, on medieval contemplatives, such as the Friends of God, on Florence, on Italy's Risorgimento, on the Pre-Raphaelites, on the Oxford Movement, on indigenous and nomadic peoples subject to discrimination and therefore poverty, and the illustrious dead buried in this so-called 'English Cemetery'. It is open to those who are interested in these areas without restrictions as to degrees or languages. The 'Aureo Anello' Associazione has organized five international conferences on 'The City and the Book', on the Alphabet and the Bible, May/June 2001, on the Manuscript and the Illumination, September 2002, on the 'English' Cemetery, June 2004, on Walter Savage Landor and Henry Savage Landor in October 2007, and on the Americans in the 'English' Cemetery in October 2008, the Proceedings then placed on the web, two of these being on the 'English' Cemetery in Florence. Concurrent with these international conferences we hold calligraphy and book-binding workshops and Book Fairs. For two years meeting every Thursday evening in the library we read all of Dante's Commedia twice and the Vita Nuova once in Italian. We are now recording all of the Commedia for the Web. In this library we teach the alphabet and how to write their names to our Roma workers in the Cemetery. We are a signatory of the Budapest Open Access Initiative and participated in the UNESCO St Petersburg Conference, Cultural Diversity in Knowledge Societies, May 2005. Our archive and library were enrolled by the Comune of Florence in SDIAF (Sistema Documentario Integrato dell'Area Fiorentina), their official network of libraries and archives, in 2006.

The collection began as my library as a professor in American universities, then was shipped to my convent in the England, then, finally, to Florence. Because I have written books on Dante Alighieri, William Langland, Geoffrey Chaucer, Brunetto Latino, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Terentius Publius Afer, Apuleius (both African writers), St Umilta of Faenza, St Birgitta of Sweden and Julian of Norwich, the library is particularly strong in those holdings. Richard Mac Cracken shipped his entire library on Florentine epigraphy in connection with Dante's teacher Brunetto Latino to us. Moleiro of Spain gave us a copy of their facsimile of the St Petersburg illuminated manuscript of Brunetto Latino's Li Livres dou Tresor. The Laurentian Library gave us a copy of the facsimile, which I transcribed and edited, of their illuminated manuscript of Brunetto Latino's Il Tesoretto. I have collected books on pilgrimage, especially featuring women pilgrims, including the travels of Guthrithyr of Iceland to Greenland, Vinland and Rome in the year 1000. I am particularly interested in the authors of great books in the Middle Ages written for the peace of all Europe, Hildegard of Bingen, Alfonso el Sabio, Brunetto Latino, Dante Alighieri, Sir John de Mandeville, Christine de Pizan, Birgitta of Sweden, Catherine of Siena and Julian of Norwich, a project in which the women were equal with the men. And likewise in the great Jewish scholars who fled Hitler and came to America, the 'Golden Apples', like Curtius and Auerbach, Panofsky and Janson, who wrote of Europe's temporarily war-destroyed civilization as the Christendom of Dante's Commedia. I have found that Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Frances Trollope, Walter Savage Landor, Southwood Smith, Theodore Parker and Richard Hildreth, all buried here, were continuing that tradition in their writings for the liberation of slaves, women and children in the nineteenth century. A further aspect of the holdings is that of the study of trauma, its relationship to war, slavery and racism, and the means to counter it and undo crimes to humanity. Our cemetery itself, in which so many participants in the Peninsula, Waterloo and Crimean battles lie buried, was hit by the 'friendly fire' of an Allied bomb in World War II, and chosen for the opening of Tea with Mussolini by Franco Zeffirelli.

ur Mediatheca 'Fioretta Mazzei' is both physical and virtual with a very large Web presence. The Florin website is on Florence, including the Cemetery's catalogue of tombs, and the Mediatheca's catalogue of books, as well as relevant essays and guidebooks to Florence. Because I am a paleographer and codicologist of medieval manuscripts I use their memory techniques for my web pages, not reinventing the wheel, making use of alternating reds and blues for capitals, and treating jpg images as if they were manuscript illuminations to the text. According to Google Analytics the Florin website receives

Video:
Lecture at Cornell, 'Brunetto Latino, Maestro di Dante Alighieri': http://www.cornell.edu/video/details.cfm?vidID=213&display=player

Talking Books on the Florin Website:

Inferno I, Inferno II, Inferno III, Inferno IV, Inferno V, [Inferno VI-VII], Inferno VIII, [Inferno IX], Inferno X, Inferno XI, Inferno XII, Inferno XIII, Inferno XIV, Inferno XV, Inferno XVI, Inferno XVII, Inferno XVIII, Inferno XIX, Inferno XXI, Inferno XXII, Inferno XXIII, Inferno XXIV, Inferno XXV, Inferno XXVI, [Inferno XXVII-XXXII], Inferno XXXIII, Inferno XXXIV
    Purgatorio I, Purgatorio II, Purgatorio III, Purgatorio IV, Purgatorio V, Purgatorio VI, Purgatorio VII, Purgatorio VIII [Purgatorio IX], Purgatorio X, Purgatorio XI, Purgatorio XII, [Purgatorio XIII-XIX], Purgatorio XX, Purgatorio XXI, [Purgatorio  XXII-XXVII], Purgatorio XXIX, Purgatorio XXX, Purgatorio XXXI, Purgatorio  XXXII, Purgatorio XXXIII
    Paradiso I, Paradiso II, Paradiso III, Paradiso IV, Paradiso V, Paradiso VI, Paradiso VII, Paradiso VIII, [Paradiso IX], Paradiso X, [Paradiso XI], Paradiso XII, [Paradiso XIII-XXXII], Paradiso XXXIII
Padre Nostro, Vergine Madre

Carlo Poli was born in the Mugello, where Giotto was born. He is dedicating the rest of his life to reciting and recording Dante.

       -       -
(See 'Paideia Dantesca' essay, italiano, where this recording project was dreamed of)

JBH Voice Recording of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Lady Geraldine's Courtship
JBH Voice Recordings of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets and Ballad: 1. 'Hiram Powers' 'Greek Slave', Sonnets from the Portuguese, 2, 3, 4, The Runaway Slave at Pilbrims' Point, 5.
Voice Recording in Portuguese, Sonetos Portugueses II This was recorded by Roderigo Araes Caldas Farias who came with his wife from Brazil with their printout of this website to visit Elizabeth's tomb. We collect translations of the Sonnets from the Portuguese in our library, now having these in Italian, German, Spanish, Czech, Hungarian, as well as Portuguese.
JBH Voice Recording of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Casa Guidi Windows I, Casa Guidi Windows II
JBH Voice Recording of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's nine book epic poem, Aurora Leigh, Book I, Book II, Book III, Book IV, Book V, Book VI, Book VII, Book VIII, Book IX
JBH Voice Recording of Elizabeth Barrett Browning on Florence, 1. Preface, 2. Casa Guidi Windows, 3. Aurora Leigh & political poems to accompany 'Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Florence', ebbflor1, ebbflor2, ebbflor3 and Map of Florence.
JBH Voice Recording of 'An Old Yellow Book: The Death and Burial of E.B.B., The Documents in the Case' I and II with Powerpoint slides illustrating the same
JBH Voice Recording of Walter Savage Landor, Gebir I, Gebir II
Voice Recording of Arthur Hugh Clough. In progress


Talking Books on the Umilta Website:

JBH Voice Recording of Westminster Manuscript Julian of Norwich, Showing of Love: Julian1.mp3, Julian2.mp3, Julian3.mp3, Julian4.mp3
JBH Voice Recording of The Soul a City: Julian and Margery
JBH Voice Recording of Julian of Norwich, The Lord and the Servant
JBH Voice Recording of Martin Buber's Julian of Norwich
Song Recording of Lydia McCauley, Sabbath Day's Journey: 'And All Shall Be Well'
JBH Voice Recording of Thomas Gascoigne's Life of St Birgitta at birgitvita.mp3
JBH Voice Recording of Quaker John Woolman, Plea for the Poor: Woolman1.mp3, Woolman2.mp3, Woolman3.mp3, Woolman4.mp3
JBH Voice Recording of Augustine, Confessions XI
Recording of Ambrosian Chant, 'Deus Creator Omnium', heard by Augustine in Milan
JBH Voice Recording of Augustine, Boethius, Dionysius, Dante: Julian's Mystical Philosophy at augmyst.mp3
JBH Voice Recording of Poems Pennyeach at poemspennyeach.mp3
Song and Voice Recording of Hedera, who is Rom from Romania, singing 'Alleluia'
RAI 1. Il Silenzio di Dio, Isabella Schiavone, Easter Day, 2008. Google 'tg1 speciale silenzio di Dio' and go towards the middle of the video.

E-Book on Umilta and Florin Websites:

Sweet New Style: Essays on Brunetto Latino, Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer English  Contents:

Brunetto Latino and Dante Alighieri:
I Bankers and Their Books: Italian Manuscripts in French Exile
II Brown Ink, Red Blood: Brunetto Latino and the Sicilian Vespers
III The Vita Nuova's Pilgrimage Paradigms
IV Stealing Hercules' Club: Inferno XXV's Metamorphoses
Geoffrey Chaucer:
V Black and Red Letter Chaucer
VI Fact and Fiction: Women in Love
VII Convents, Courts and Colleges
VIII The Tomb of the Duchess Alice
Epilogue: Attica State Prison, Boethius the Exile, Dante the Pilgrim

Other E-Books our Virtual Library publishes on line on Umilta and Florin Websites:

The Brunetto Latino Project:
Brunetto Latino, Il Tesoretto Italian and English
Brunetto Latino, La Rettorica Italian
Sweet New Style: Brunetto Latino, Dante Alighieri, Geoffrey Chaucer
Aucassin and Nicolete French and English

Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Letters, 1851-1861, mostly written in Florence
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/6/4/16646/16646-h/16646-h.htm  ||
Theodosia Trollope, Social Aspects of the Italian Revolution 

http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC19875468&id=UqXn1sgEpNgC&printsec=titlepage&dq=florence+italy&as_brr=1 

Pasquale Villari, Savonarola, trans. Linda Villari (zip files)
http://www.tracts.ukgo.com/girolamo_savonarola.htm ||
George Eliot, Romola
http://www.princeton.edu/~batke/eliot/romola/romola-1.html ||
John Ruskin, Mornings in Florence
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext05/8fmrn10.txt ||
John Ruskin, Val d'Arno
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext05/8arno10.txt ||
Henry James, Italian Hours
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext04/8ihou10.txt ||
W.D. Howells, Indian Summer
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext05/8insm10h.htm ||
E.V. Lucas, A Wanderer in Florence,
http://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/7/6/10769/10769-8.txt ||
An illustrated version of Edward Hutton's Florence and Northern Tuscany:
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/4/7/16477/16477-h/16477-h.htm ||

We invite further essays and e-books on Florence, on Italy, on Dante, on the global Italian diaspora, on Anglo-Italian culture, on libraries, on books, in Italian or in English. Submit to Julia Bolton Holloway

Audio-Books as DVDs and Podcasts our Library intends to publish:

We are embarking on creating DVDs and podcasts of Audio-Book readings combining text, image, sound. This, partly, because my colleague and co-editor, Sister Anna Maria Reynolds, C.P., in Ireland is blind and we sought to record the Julian text for her. We acquired a Mac mini with ILife and a fifth generation IPod video with an Xtreme mic for this work. Then this system became obsolete. We are now acquiring a USB Yeti microphone. But I am not a teenager used to ITunes and, in my seventies, need help from you. Please give us advice. We plan on creating educational audio-books on the following:

See  /portfolio for hard-copy books and CDs available from this website, which publishes books to support its library, the Biblioteca e Bottega Fioretta Mazzei

CATALOGO ONLINE MEDIATHECA 'FIORETTA MAZZEI' 

ALEPH=Alfabeto, Bibbia, Giudaismo, Islam, Cristianità, Teologia greca, russa, latina, celtica, anglo-sassone, teologia moderna, libri per bambini e ragazzi
BETH= Ordini monastici: Benedettini, Brigidine, Carmelitani, Certosini, Domenicani, Francescani/Clarisse, Serviti, Vittorini, Anglicani || Studi sul Medio Evo, la donna nel Medio Evo, le beghine, anacorete/eremiti, Giuliana di Norwich, oblate di santa Francesca Romana, pellegrini, lollardi, quaccheri, ecc.
GIMEL=Classici, greci e latini, lingue moderne: italiano, francese, tedesco, portoghese, spagnolo, russo, dizionari, grammatiche, manuali di stile || Teologi-politici fiorentini: Don Giulio Facibeni, Giorgio La Pira, Fioretta Mazzei, Pietro Parigi, Don Lorenzo Milani Comparetti, Giannozzo Pucci; Amicizia Ebraico-Cristiana; Rom
DALETH=Letteratura islandese e britannica: islandese, gallese, anglo-sassone, dramma, medio inglese, Rinascimento, Seicento, Settecento, Romanticismo.
HE=Letteratura moderna e contemporanea; studi sul trauma: guerre, olocausti, donne, popolazioni indigene o nomadi || Letteratura dell'Ottocento e documenti relativi, in particolare sugli scrittori e sugli artisti che hanno trovato sepoltura nel Cimitero 'degli Inglesi'.
VAU=Pubblicazioni: Glorney Bolton, Julia Bolton Holloway, 'Prospero's Books', 'Julian Portfolio', Editrice 'Aureo Anello'.
ZAYIN=Viaggi, Storia dell'Arte, Codicologia, Paleografia, Artigianato, Firenze
KHETH=Microfilm, microfiche, libri elettronici (e-books), collezione di CD, diapositive di manoscritti medievali e ottocenteschi
TAU=Archivio del Cimitero

La Biblioteca e Bottega 'Fioretta Mazzei', costituita nell'anno 2000, è connessa al Cimitero Porta a' Pinti, detto Cimitero "degli Inglesi". Il Cimitero proprietà della Chiesa Evangelica Riformata Svizzera, istituito nel 1827, anno in cui la Chiesa acquisì dal demanio granducale il terreno sul quale esso sorge, è un cimitero internazionale ed ecumenico nato come cimitero per i non cattolici: protestanti, ortodossi, anglicani. Oggi può anche accogliere le urne cinerarie di appartenenti ad altre confessioni religiose, confessione cattolica inclusa. È un archivio della memoria, un libro-monumento la cui storia è scritta sul marmo in molti alfabeti, ebraico, greco, cirillico, latino (alfabeti della stessa famiglia) e in diverse lingue, inglese, francese, italiano, romancio, russo, tedesco, olandese, danese, latino, greco, ebraico. Le iscrizioni sepolcrali sono sovente citazioni tratte dalla Bibbia (nell'Ottocento ai laici cattolici era proibito leggere la Bibbia nella propria lingua) o raccontano la vita e la storia di coloro i quali a Firenze dimorarono e che in questo luogo hanno trovato sepoltura. Un microcosmo multiforme intrecciato con il macrocosmo dell'Ottocento fiorentino e della storia dell'Italia risorgimentale, della cultura europea e del mondo intero (tra gli altri, sepolcri di Australiani, Americani, e la tomba di una schiava nera giunta a Firenze dalla Nubia e morta affrancata). Il catalogo della biblioteca, così come l'elenco dei sepolti, è ora disponibile sul Web. Invitiamo tutti a consultarli e a visitare la biblioteca e il Cimitero monumentale.

La Biblioteca e Bottega 'Fioretta Mazzei' il cui patrimonio è accresciuto per acquisto e tramite le numerose donazioni, esprime profonda gratitudine a tutti i donatori per le sue nuove acquisizioni. Si diviene soci della biblioteca donando annualmente un libro o anche più libri; possono essere libri pregevoli (come il facsimile de Li Livres dou Tresor di Brunetto Latino, dono della Casa Editrice di Barcellona M. Moleiro), o anche libri non in buono stato di conservazione che potranno, dunque, essere restaurati e rilegati nella nostra bottega. Per il lavoro di ricerca sono importanti tutte le notizie e le informazioni su coloro i quali in questo Cimitero hanno trovato sepoltura. Sugli scrittori, sugli artisti che hanno disegnato e scolpito le pietre tombali: Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Isa Blagden, Arthur Hugh Clough, Robert Davidsohn, Walter Savage Landor, Fanny e Theodosia Trollope, Fanny Holman Hunt, Hiram Powers, Lord Leighton, ecc. Gli ambiti di specializzazione della nostra biblioteca sono l'alfabeto, la Bibbia ebraica, il Nuovo Testamento in greco, la Teologia, gli Ordini monastici e contemplativi, gli studi sul Medio Evo, il pellegrinaggio, i Classici greci e latini, la Letteratura europea (francese, italiana, portoghese, spagnola, tedesca, russa, svedese, islandese, inglese), la storia di Firenze, l'Italia risorgimentale, i Preraffaelliti e il Movimento di Oxford, il dramma medievale e rinascimentale, le culture indigene, gli studi sul trauma, la Storia dell'Arte, la Paleografia e la Codicologia, l'Artigianato (tessitura, ricamo, incisione, rilegatura dei libri, marmorizzazione della carta, falegnameria, ecc.), e i libri per bambini. Quale segno di riconoscenza e perché ne rimanga memoria ad ogni libro si appone un ex-libris con la data dell'anno di acquisizione, la città e il nome del donatore. 

La bottega, attigua alla biblioteca, è utilizzata come laboratorio per il lavoro di restauro, per la marmorizzazione della carta, per la rilegatura di libri, per eseguire lavori di falegnameria (ad esempio per realizzare culle in stile antico, incorniciare quadri, ecc). Come custodi della cultura artigiana condividiamo la preoccupazione per la perdita di molte delle antiche botteghe fiorentine - fucine di arte e maestria artigianale - come pure delle tradizioni culturali, proponendoci di contribuire a testimoniare, documentare, e far rifiorire le stesse. Animati da questo intento la Biblioteca, il cui materiale librario è tutto a scaffale aperto, è stata realizzata artigianalmente, arredata con sedie savonarola e con scaffali decorati con croci gigliate in ferro battuto, sul modello della Bodleian Library. Lo spazio consente anche di allestire delle mostre (ad esempio, esposizioni di libri e dipinti, o mostre fotografiche), come quella in corso 'Firenze in seppia', della quale è stato anche realizzato  il CD).

Nella nostra Biblioteca e Bottega Fioretta Mazzei, coniugando tecnologia e tradizione, creiamo libri realizzati con lavorazione artigianale e composti al computer utilizzando il font William Morris. Possiamo stampare incisioni, tenere laboratori di calligrafia.
L' Editrice 'Aureo Anello' che pubblica queste edizioni e crea anche CD, ha assunto la sua denominazione dalle parole incise sulla lapide posta sulla facciata di Casa Guidi, dove si legge:

Fra le iniziative culturali promosse e organizzate dalla Biblioteca la serie di convegni internazionali su 'La città e il libro', e gli eventi collaterali, le Fiere del Libro, in particolare. Gli Atti dei tre convegni sono stati pubblicati sul Web. Per due anni consecutivi ogni giovedì sera la Biblioteca ha ospitato una Lectura Dantis. Tutte e tre le cantiche della Commedia e succcessivamente La Vita nuova sono state lette a lume di candela fra i libri. Il nostro definito itinerario culturale è quello di preservare il passato quale eredità preziosa da tramettere alle generazioni future. Il sogno è che la Biblioteca e Bottega 'Fioretta Mazzei' sia la biblioteca personale di ciascuno, sia un centro culturale internazionale ed ecumenico, un centro per l'apprendimento di attività artigianali. Un centro di studi aperto a tutti, poveri e ricchi, bambini, donne e uomini, analfabeti e studiosi, stranieri e fiorentini, tutti condividendo l'eredità storico culturale di Firenze.

Dante Alighieri. Commedia, Lettura di Carlo Poli: File Audio in italiano:

Inferno I, Inferno II, Inferno III, Inferno IV, Inferno V, [Inferno VI-VII], Inferno VIII, [Inferno IX], Inferno X, Inferno XI, Inferno XII, Inferno XIII, Inferno XIV, Inferno XV, Inferno XVI, Inferno XVII, Inferno XVIII, Inferno XIX, Inferno XXI, Inferno XXII, Inferno XXIII, Inferno XXIV, Inferno XXV, Inferno XXVI, [Inferno XXVII-XXXII], Inferno XXXIII, Inferno XXXIV
    Purgatorio I, Purgatorio II, Purgatorio III, Purgatorio IV, Purgatorio V, Purgatorio VI, Purgatorio VII, Purgatorio VIII [Purgatorio IX], Purgatorio X, Purgatorio XI, Purgatorio XII, [Purgatorio XIII-XIX], Purgatorio XX, Purgatorio XXI, [Purgatorio  XXII-XXVII], Purgatorio XXIX, Purgatorio XXX, Purgatorio XXXI, Purgatorio  XXXII, Purgatorio XXXIII
    Paradiso I, Paradiso II, Paradiso III, Paradiso IV, Paradiso V, Paradiso VI, Paradiso VII, Paradiso VIII, [Paradiso IX], Paradiso X, [Paradiso XI], Paradiso XII, [Paradiso XIII-XXXII], Paradiso XXXIII
Padre Nostro, Vergine Madre

       -       -

Paideia Dantesca

CATALOGO: http://www.florin.ms/libaleph.html, /libbeth, /libgimel, /libdaleth, ecc.
CIMITERO: http://www.florin.ms/cimitero.html, /cemetery1.html, /cemetery2.html, /cemetery3.html, /cemetery4.html
LA CITTA' E IL LIBRO: http://www.florin.ms/aleph.html, ecc., http://www.florin.ms/beth.html, ecc., http://www.florin.ms/gimel.html, ecc.
SDIAF http://www.comune.firenze.it/sdiaf/SDIAFinformazione.htm#lebiblioteche Sistema Documentario Integrato dell'Area Fiorentina

LIBRARY/MEDIATHECA PAGES: MEDIATHECA 'FIORETTA MAZZEI' || ITS ONLINE CATALOGUE || HOW TO RUN A LIBRARY || MANUSCRIPT FACSIMILES || MANUSCRIPTS || MUSEUMS || FLORENTINE LIBRARIES, MUSEUMS || HOW TO BUILD CRADLES AND LIBRARIES || BOTTEGA || PUBLICATIONS || LIMITED EDITIONS || LIBRERIA EDITRICE FIORENTINA || SISMEL EDIZIONI DEL GALLUZZO || FIERA DEL LIBRO || FLORENTINE BINDING || CALLIGRAPHY WORKSHOPS || BOOKBINDING WORKSHOPS

FLORIN WEBSITE © JULIA BOLTON HOLLOWAY, AUREO ANELLO ASSOCIATION, 1997-2010:  FLORENCE'S 'ENGLISH' CEMETERY || BIBLIOTECA E BOTTEGA FIORETTA MAZZEI || ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING || FLORENCE IN SEPIA  ||  BRUNETTO LATINO, DANTE ALIGHIERI AND GEOFFREY CHAUCER || E-BOOKS || ANGLO-ITALIAN STUDIES || CITY AND BOOK I, II, III, IV || NON-PROFIT GUIDE TO COMMERCE IN FLORENCE ||   AUREO ANELLO, CATALOGUE || LINGUE/ LANGUAGES: ITALIANO, ENGLISH