Italian treasures in library

On the sixth floor of the J.Paul Leonard library sits treasures unknown to most S.F. State students. Treasures that represents one man's love of Italian history, music, literature and art.

Born in Italy, Frank V. DeBellis always had a love for "things Italian" and decided to spend the last 30 years of his life collecting rare artifacts from his culture.

In 1964, DeBellis donated all of his "treasures" to the California State University system and insisted that the collection be housed at S.F. State.

Today the DeBellis collection serves many disciplines including humanities, history, museum studies and music.

"The collection is where you can find 18,000 books, 10,000 musical scores and 350 Greek, Etruscan and Roman artifacts," said Assistant Curator Colomba Ghigliotti. "The only problem is that many people do not know this."

To gain public visibility for the collection, Ghigliotti works together with faculty members and the general public by holding a social hour every Friday to talk about Italy.

Exhibits, concerts and lectures all related to Italian culture are presented to students and faculty on a regular basis.

Budget cuts and lack of funds in the CSU system has affected the collection, as well as the lack of interest of students.

Through fund-raising and donations of artifacts the collection continues to expand.

Students who are museum studies, humanities or Italian majors try to take advantage of the DeBellis collection, which is cataloged in the library's "Investigator."

"When I visit the collection I get a better view of what exactly I am studying and I have a chance to enjoy it," said Frank Mancini, a museum studies major.

Others find the collection amazing because of the wealth of Italian, greek and Roman history available to them.

"The things that I have seen in the DeBellis collection have always made me realize what rich history there truly is," said Melissa Norton, a Italian major.

Faculty members also try to incorporate the DeBellis collection in various aspects of their teaching, including using rare books that are dated before the fifth century.

Research by students and faculty have benefitted from the collection by the resources of books by Dante and Isabella Andreini.

"The collection is very important, but in a way it's sad that no one takes advantage of it," said Professor Natalia Costa.

Ghigliotti started as a student assistant and eventually became the right-hand woman for Serena DeBellis who is now retired.

"This collection is extremely wonderful and beneficial to all that use it," Ghigliotti said.

Among the many treasures of the collection there lies a deep since of history and culture that is open to all.

Frank V. DeBellis had a dream to bring Greek, Roman, Latin and Italian culture to S.F. State, a dream which has become a reality.

The DeBellis collection is open Monday-Thursday 1-5 p.m., and Friday 1-4 p.m.

[ Golden Gater Online September 26, 1995 ]

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