Lino Lucchini: His Papers Donated to Lonato's Library

A lifetime of study stays in Lonato del Garda. The children of Lino Lucchini (Caprino Veronese, 1926 – Lonato del Garda, 2025), the local historian who died in August 2025, have entrusted his printed publications and his manuscripts to the town’s Civic Library. The Lucchini Donation was officially announced on Saturday 19 September in the library’s Hall of Mirrors, at the presentation of the monograph Lino Lucchini. Omaggio allo studioso lonatese (A Tribute to the Lonato Scholar), coordinated by the Friends of the Ugo Da Como Foundation in the series I Quaderni della Fondazione.

There is no topic in Lonato’s history that Lucchini left unexplored: archaeological research, the old routes of the Roman roads, the monuments, local government and the people who lived in the town over the centuries.

A career as a town clerk

Born in Caprino Veronese on 23 August 1926, he moved to Lonato with his family: his father Pasquale worked there as a municipal clerk. With the help of the parish priest, Monsignor Silvio Ogheri, he was able to attend the teacher training school in Verona. Meanwhile he worked in a boarding school as a prefect. During the war, still very young, he was a municipal clerk and a courier for the Resistance, a commitment that in 1985 earned him the Diploma of Honour for Freedom Fighters of Italy, signed by President Pertini.

Black-and-white portrait of Lino Lucchini reading a sheet of paper at a desk, from the cover of the monograph dedicated to him

After qualifying as a teacher, in 1948 he passed the exam in Rome to become a municipal secretary. His career took him to many towns, from Valvestino and Limone, where he met Livia Magrograssi, whom he married in 1953, to Rasura, Livemmo, Remedello and Gargnano. In 1968 he returned to Lonato and settled there with his family; he went on to serve in Barrafranca, Lumezzane and Rovigo and in the provincial secretariats of Mantua and Ferrara, rising to provincial secretary. The President of the Republic made him a Commendatore.

Study after retirement

Never having earned a university degree was a regret he always carried with him: when he retired in 1991, he enrolled at the Catholic University in Brescia to study education, history and Latin. His research, built on meticulous work in municipal and parish archives, appeared in journals such as Civiltà Bresciana and Brixia Sacra. Lonato awarded him a plaque in 1996 and, in 2016, the Giovannino d’oro of the Feast of San Giovanni. In his last years, failing eyesight slowed his work, but he kept advising students and researchers. He died in Lonato on 10 August 2025.

In these pages since 2011

His name appeared in at least 163 issues of GN, from May 2011 to September 2025. His first article, L’antica pieve di Lonato del Garda (The Old Parish Church of Lonato del Garda), came out in issue 29; it was followed by the Polada culture, the Roman inscription at Porta Corlo, Esenta, Drugolo castle, the plague of 1630, the walls and the Torre Maestra, portraits of famous people from Lonato, from Paolo Soratini to Vittorio Barzoni, and long series such as I misteri di Lonato (The Mysteries of Lonato), in eleven parts, and Lonato: mansio ad Flexum, in nine. He often returned to Maguzzano: the abbey’s suppression under Napoleon, the altar of the abbey church, Gabriele d’Annunzio’s visit to the monks, the last friars.

Lino Lucchini, elderly and wearing glasses, holding the golden Giovannino award he received from Lonato in 2016

In his last months it was his son Aldo who gathered and updated his articles and pictures. The last one, on the Romanesque church of Saints Cyprian and Justina, came out in two parts: the second in September 2025, in the issue that marked his death.

Cataloguing the collection

The collection was catalogued by Roberta Valbusa and Stefano Lusardi of the Ugo Da Como Foundation, who completed the work on 21 July. It produced two lists, one of the modern printed works and one of the manuscripts, which show the interests the scholar pursued over the years. The manuscripts are not old documents: they are Lucchini’s notes and his photocopies of historical documents and of the literature on which he built his writings. For the Foundation it is “a fundamental collection for the history of Lonato, an important starting point for any future research”.

The lists will be used to arrange the future Lucchini Collection in the Civic Library at Palazzo Zambelli, under the care of the Municipality of Lonato del Garda.

A 1905 deed from Maguzzano

Stone facade of the Romanesque church of Saints Cyprian and Justina in Lonato del Garda, with a cypress and a cobbled path

Maguzzano is also where the only period manuscript found among the papers comes from: a “certified copy of a deed of sale” dated 9 December 1905, concerning an exchange of properties, which Lucchini kept in his folders on the abbey. The Foundation suggests considering whether it should go to the Archive of Maguzzano Abbey.

The monograph

The book had already been supported by the previous town council, which handed over to Mayor Nicola Bianchi and councillor Silvia Razzi. For the Municipality, it grew out of its collaboration with the Foundation and the Friends’ Association: “Added to this collaboration is the generosity of the Lucchini family, who chose to entrust the scholar’s working tools to the Civic Library, making them available to all those who wish to continue research into the history of our area”.

The monograph brings together contributions by Matteo Leali, Ivano Lorenzoni, Aldo Lucchini, Riccardo Pasqualin, Giancarlo Pionna, Davide Sigurtà and Giuseppe Spataro. For Loredana Rocca, president of the Friends’ Association, thanks to their continuity the Quaderni have become “a special means of cultural accumulation, varied and accurate in content, rigorous in presentation, that saves portions of local history and culture from possible oblivion”.

Article by the editorial team (Ugo Da Como Foundation page) for GN Magazine (November 2026).