Armando Lodolini was born in Rome on 26th March 1888, to Alessandro, a grocery store owner, and Laura Diamantini.

After graduating from high school, he enrolled in the Faculty of Law, at the same time winning a competition in the administration of the State Archives.

He began his career by serving in Modena (1909-11), at which time he also graduated from the School of Palaeography at the State Archives in Parma.

Later, he was transferred to the State Archives in Rome where he worked until the outbreak of World War I, in which he participated and was decorated several times for military merit.

Once the war ended and work resumed, the following years were marked by an intense involvement in both scientific and popular production – extensive and extremely varied – and in political activity, which had seen him actively involved from a very young age, first through revolutionary syndicalism, then through his closeness to Mazzini’s party, and finally through his adhesion to fascism.

At the State Archives in Rome, he was the closest collaborator of director Eugenio Casanova and it is no coincidence that Lodolini’s name is linked to many activities of reorganisation and inventorying of important archival fonds.

In 1933-35, he succeeded Casanova as regent of the State Archives, but was soon transferred to Bologna, where he was dismissed due to reports of abuse by some employees. He was only reinstated many years later, in 1948, with retroactive effect and, two years later, he became director of the State Archives in Rome and related institutions, i.e. the former Kingdom Archives and the School of Archivistics, Palaeography and Diplomatics.

In 1953 he was the first superintendent of the newly founded Central State Archive, while in 1956 he left the direction of the State Archive in Rome, being ‘retired’.

From his marriage with Ada Francioni, his son Elio (1922-2023), also a famous archivist, was born.

During the last decade of his life, he continued to be active as an archivist, journalist, lecturer and author of numerous publications in the fields of history, literature, law and, of course, archives. His particular industriousness and intense eclecticism made him one of the best-known names in 20th century Italian archival work to this day.

He died in Rome on 2nd August 1966.

You can consult the birth certificate on the Ancestors Portal: Archivio di Stato di Roma > Stato civile italiano > Roma > 1888

The original is kept at the State Archives of Rome

For more on Armando Lodolini, see the entry in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani edited by Anna Lia Bonella.a