Professor donates collection of Italian history �

Jack Fry, Hilldale Professor of Physics emeritus at UW–Madison, is donating to the university more than 26,000 documents he has collected during his lifelong interest in Italian history.

Fry’s gift, which comes as the library system this spring celebrates reaching a total collection of 6 million volumes, will be housed in the Department of Special Collections.

Fry’s collection includes material ranging from an Italian family archive of the late Middle Ages to political pamphlets of the post-World War II period. Some rare finds include a diary of the 16th-century Italian Renaissance poet Lodovico Ariosto, one of the most important Italian poets at a time when Italian literature was preeminent.

In addition, David Hayman, Bascom-Evjue Professor of Comparative Literature emeritus, has given an Arion Press edition of James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” illustrated by abstract expressionist master Robert Motherwell.

“The gifts recognize that since the early days of the university, donors have played a major role in building the first-class research collections of the UW–Madison,” says Ken Frazier, campus libraries director.

As part of the semester-long “Celebrating Books” series, Hayman will present an illustrated lecture, “Reading Motherwell’s Reading of Joyce,” at 4:30 p.m., Thursday, March 29, 976 Memorial Library.

Frazier will present the 6-millionth book at the Friends of UW–Madison Libraries annual meeting, Wednesday, April 18. As director during the past decade, Frazier has overseen the growth of the collections, the development of digital resources and the creation of national initiatives in library partnerships in scholarly communication. Frazier’s talk, “The Golden Age of the Research Library,” will be at 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, April 18, Howard Auditorium, Fluno Center.