Fondazione Carlo Donat-Cattin

The Fondazione Carlo Donat-Cattin was established in Torino in 1992 and legally recognized by Ministerial Decree on March 5th 1998.
The aims of the foundation are to promote study and research into the social, political and economic thought in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with particular interest in the Catholic movement and its presence in Italian and European society. The foundation gathers and preserves documentary evidence, manages a specialised library, organises congresses, seminars, exhibitions and debates relating to its specific field of interest, with particular awareness of the historical-political aspects, and grants scholarships for graduates and young researchers.

The foundation also works with the Associazione per la Valorizzazione Storica della Democrazia Italian - Onlus (The Association for the Historical Valorisation of Italian Democracy – a non-profit organisation), with the Associazione Istituzioni Culturali Italiane (The Association of Italian Cultural Institutions) and other important cultural organisations.

The Archive, recognised by the State to be of considerable historical importance, since “it is a noteworthy source of historical information on the Catholic political and trade union movements in Piemonte and throughout Italy”, holds the papers of Carlo Donat-Cattin, Alessandro Favero, Carlo Trabucco, Carlo Chiavezza, Giovanni Battista Marocco, the Piemonte Section of the U.C.S.I. (Unione Cattolica Stampa Italiana, Italian Catholic Press Union), the ADES (Associazione Amici e Discendenti degli Esuli Giuliani, Istriani, Fiumani, Dalmati. Association of friends and descendants of the Italian exiles) Archive, the historical archive of the political parties Democrazia Cristiana (The Christian Democrats) and Partito Popolare Piemontese (The Piemontese People’s Party) and of a number of local politicians.

The material held includes significant documents regarding the local and national social, religious and political history.
Users can consult the documents in both printed and computerized forms.

The Library currently owns around 20,000 volumes on the history of the Catholic movement (nineteenth and twentieth centuries) and is regularly updated. There is also a reading room with historical and contemporary specialist publications. The contents of the library are currently being catalogued on computer, under the national library system.

The foundation publishes the Acts of the congresses, journals and the inventory of the archives.