Biblioteca Comunale di Impruneta e Fondo Maria Maltoni

The Biblioteca Comunale di Impruneta preserves the Fondo Maria Maltoni, an archive of notebooks, drawings and class journals from the rural school of San Gersolè. The collection records an influential experiment in education through writing, drawing and close observation of everyday life.

Why it matters

Maria Maltoni taught at San Gersolè from 1920 to 1956. Her pupils used diaries and drawings to explore their surroundings and develop their own forms of expression. The archive, comprising more than five thousand items, is an important record of rural education and the history of pedagogy.

What to notice

The fonds includes school notebooks, loose drawings and albums, class registers, photographs and the children's journal, Giornale di San Gersolè. Across these materials, scenes of fields, tools and village life show how observation became part of the students' learning.

Context and history

Maltoni's educational approach attracted attention during her lifetime. Her pupils' work was exhibited in 1949 and 1950, and an illustrated volume about the school appeared in 1959 with a preface by Italo Calvino. When the school closed in 1989, the Comune di Impruneta received the collection. Related documents are also held by the INDIRE historical archive in Florence.