Precious manuscripts on the history of the town
La “Istoria della città di Cervia”, an autograph manuscript by Giuseppe Maria Pignocchi, belonged to the personal library of Carlo Saporetti, a native of Cervia, scholar of local history and untiring researcher of the territory’s origins. A unique text of great historical value, a work of study never completed, drafted by an enthusiastic native of Cervia, Pignocchi to be precise, born in the early 1700s, who lived in a house on via XX Settembre close to Porta Cesenatico.
As indicated by Umberto Foschi, of Pignocchi remain a few other historical texts which include: "Il Catalogo dei Vescovi dell’antica Ficocle", published in Ravenna in 1750 and "Il Catalogo delle notizie sinora rilevate da libri storici di vari archivi e da manoscritti sopra le saline e i loro Sali, li Dominanti suoi et i loro appaltatori” a manuscript dated around 1750.
From Carlo Saporetti’s library also comes the second manuscript which is a treaty of the Canon Pietro Senni who lived in the 1700s and died in 1801 at the age of 86. It is entitled “Alcune notizie della città di Cervia vecchia e nuova raccolte ed offerte agli Ill.mi Signori Capitolari l’anno 1778.” It seems to be a copy; this is indicated at the end of the text, drafted in 1871 of an original text that has since been lost. Here, too, a rare and precious example of great historical and archival interest.
Senni is known for the map of the town of Old Cervia, whose original is found preserved in the historical archive of Cervia and for the list of the residents of old Cervia which was entered by Ferdinando Forlivesi into the history of Cervia published in 1889.
The two manuscripts were donated to the museum in 2013 by Massimo Previato, grandson of Carlo Saporetti. They were thoroughly restored in 2014.
