Italian Institute of Speleology

The Italian Institute of Speleology (IIS) was founded in Postojna in 1927, with the aim of coordinating all of the speleological activities in Italy. After its inception the Institute established the first national speleological library and cave register. Due to the events of WW2 the IIS was forced to stop its activities in 1944 and its material was transported to Verona. A few months later it was moved into Germany, from where it was "rescued" after a couple of years and hosted in the Geological Institute of a local University. In the meantime Postojna became part of the former Yugoslavia, now Slovenia, and therefore it was impossible to reconstruct the IIS there.

In the meantime, the fast growth of speleological activities after WW2 encouraged cavers to found the Italian Speleological Society (SSI) in 1951. Therefore, when the IIS was restarted within the University of Bologna in 1955, it was decided to concentrate its activities in the scientific field, abandoning any other interests.

Thanks to cooperation with the SSI the IIS set up the "Speleological Documentation Centre" in 1976. This was later renamed to honour Franco Anelli, who had been responsible for the IIS since its foundation. Presently this Centre hosts the largest speleological library in the world. In the 1990s increased co-operation with the SSI led to the transformation of the IIS into the scientific branch of the SSI. In the meantime the SSI placed its official address within the IIS. From the start the IIS has put most of its effort into the editorial field, printing the journal "Le Grotte d'Italia" since 1928. Now this journal is printed yearly and its target audience includes the young Italian scientists who are studying any aspect of karst. Since 1931 the IIS has printed an occasional series of monographs entitled "Memorie dell'Istituto Italiano di Speleologia" that are dedicated to wide interdisciplinary research and/or to proceedings of topical symposia.

The Italian Institute of Speleology is housed in the Department of Earth and Geological-Environmental Sciences, Via Zamboni 67 - 40126 Bologna (Tel. +39-0512094547 - Fax +39-0512094522).
For any further information please contact Paolo Forti: forti@geomin.unibo.it