Museo Filangieri and U.S. Government partner to restore Filangieri-Franklin correspondence

The Museo Civico Gaetano Filangieri and the United States Government, through the U.S. Consulate General in Naples, have signed a historic three-year agreement titled ‘Preservare le radici della libertà’ (Preserving the Roots of Liberty).

The project focuses on the restoration, preventive conservation, and digitalization of the extensive correspondence between the Enlightenment thinker Gaetano Filangieri and American Founding Father Benjamin Franklin. This intellectual exchange, which took place between 1781 and 1787, is preserved in 24 historical documents that link Neapolitan Enlightenment thought to the birth of American democracy.

Funded with $210,000 from the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) as part of the Freedom 250 initiative, the project includes several key components: non-invasive diagnostic restoration of documents, environmental monitoring of the Palazzo Como library, and the creation of a high-resolution digital archive accessible to the public via Creative Commons licenses. The initiative also features an international conference and a final exhibition to celebrate the historical connection between Naples and Philadelphia.