Events organized

2018

European Researchers' Night 2018
On Friday 28 September 2018, as part of the European Researchers' Night event at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, the Library in collaboration with the Department of Infectious, Parasitic and Immunomedial Diseases of the ISS organized the guided tour entitled: Herbs aromatics: a journey between art and science. In this educational-illustrative pathway, visitors were able to discover botany through ancient books, botany in art through painting, essential oils and the science behind them.
The Rare Book Collection includes over a thousand printed copies, published between 1504 and 1830. Visitors were able to admire some of the most beautiful, such as the tables reproducing aromatic plants and the Commentaries in sex libros Pedacii Dioscoridis Anarzabei de medica materia (PA Mattioli ). They were also able to test their sense of smell thanks to samples of essential oils among those most used in the disinfection and conservation of paper. A space dedicated to children has also been provided with the game Budding Researchers.

The Magister Canova exhibition at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia. Venice: June 16-November 22 2018
The Magister Canova exhibition is an extraordinary multimedia exhibition that immerses visitors in the creative process followed by Antonio Canova: a famous Venetian sculptor and the greatest interpreter of neoclassical art. The exhibition is an experience of discovery that combines technology, art and entertainment moving from micro to macro, from the butterfly of Cupid and Psyche, to the frenzy of giant Hercules and the terror of Lichas, from the study of the anatomical drawings preserved at the Library of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, to the representation of the revolutionary process of creation defined by Canova.

2017

National Library of Belgrade, Conference 2-4 / 10/2017: Intervention by the Working Group
On the occasion of the Conference Collections in the Context of Cultural Heritage Protection and Cultural Development Fostering held at the National Library of Belbrado (Serbia), from 2nd to 4th October 2017, the Working Group presented the intervention: Sharing ancient cultural heritage in the digital era: the experience of the Library of the Italian National Institute of Health.

European Researchers' Night 2017
On Friday 29 September 2017, as part of the European Researchers' Night event at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, the Library organized the exhibition Journey into the human body between the 16th and 19th centuries: images from ancient volumes of the ISS Library. Visitors, being able to admire some of the precious ancient volumes belonging to the Rare Fund of the ISS Library, made an ideal journey into the history of medicine through the figurative representation of the human body. They thus had the opportunity to appreciate the illustrations of study tables, such as the anatomical drawings by Antonio Canova, and the prints of fundamental works for the evolution of medicine, such as Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica.

The Rare Fund of the Library at the ISS Museum 
On 21 April 2017, at the end of the celebrations for the 83rd anniversary of the founding of the ISS, the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella, in the presence of the Minister of Health Beatrice Lorenzin and the Minister of Cultural Heritage Dario Franceschini, inaugurated the new Museum of ISS.
The ISS Museum is interactive and uses the latest technologies to guide the visitor through a stimulating exhibition / educational path.
A section of the Museum is dedicated specifically to the RareFund of the ISS Library (16th-19th centuries). In this area some precious printed specimens of the collection are exhibited, including one of the 17 anatomical tables by Antonio Canova (1757-1822) owned by the Library.
The exhibition is completed by the White Book, a browsable multimedia product consisting of about 300 digital images taken from some of the most beautiful and significant volumes of the Fund concerning the following thematic areas: Mineral waters; Botany and zoology; Chemistry, physics and mathematics; Ancient and modern medicine.

The selection and catalog description of the volumes and images is by the Working Group for the Enhancement and Conservation of the Rare Fund of the Library of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità.

ISS Library Rare Fund available on GoogleBooks
Since 2017 it has been possible to consult the full text of the more than one thousand volumes of the Ancient Fund of the ISS Library (16th-19th centuries) on the GoogleBooks platform.
The digitization of the volumes was made possible by an agreement signed between the ISS Library and the Library System of the University of Rome Sapienza in May 2016. Detailed information on this initiative, by the Working Group for the Valorisation and Conservation of the  Rare Books Fund  from the ISS Library, they are available on the ISS Newsletter Notiziario .

Images from the Rare Fund to illustrate a brief history of cancer research
Some images from the Rari Fund have been chosen to illustrate Chapter 1 (From prehistory to the eighteenth century) of the publication Breve storia della ricerca sul cancro: un racconto per educare alla ricerca. Roma: Istituto Superiore di Sanità; 2016. (Dispense per la scuola 16/1; p.1-15). (Brief history of cancer research: a story to educate to research). 

2016

European Researchers' Night: the ISS Library shows its treasures ...
On Friday 30 September 2016, on the occasion of the European Researchers' Night, the Library of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, a new entry among the national partners of the event coordinated by Frascati Scienza, organized two guided tours, exhibiting to the public:

• the anatomical tables by Antonio Canova
• a selection of ancient books (16th - 19th century) belonging to the Rari Fund
• some historical-scientific laboratory instruments (20th century).