Exhibition showcases library of renowned actress Eleonora Duse

A glimpse into the intellectual and artistic orbit of the distinguished Italian actress Eleonora Duse is on display to visitors in a new College exhibition.

Eleonora Duse’s Library: An Exhibition of Books from the Murray Edwards Duse Collection brings together a selection of volumes from the personal library of one of the most celebrated performers in the history of theatre. Preserved here at Murray Edwards, the collection offers an intimate portrait of Duse (1858–1924): not only the acclaimed actress who transformed stage performance, but also the reader and thinker whose intellectual life shaped her art.

Duse once described her books as her ‘artistic wardrobe’ – a telling phrase indicating the centrality of reading to her craft. Just as costumes helped define a character on stage, these volumes furnished the ideas, influences and emotional textures that informed her performances. The display invites visitors to explore that wardrobe, revealing a creative life threaded through with literature, poetry and artistic exchange.

The exhibition, curated by Dr Elena Sottilotta, Research Fellow in Italian at Murray Edwards, and College Librarian Alberto Garcia, also reflects Duse’s closeness to leading writers and intellectuals of her period, bearing witness to an intense network of cultural connections. Many of the books contain personal messages, including dedications from the educator Maria Montessori, the dramatist Luigi Pirandello and the poet Aldo Palazzeschi.

The collection itself has a remarkable history. After Duse’s death, her books passed to her daughter, Enrichetta Angelica Marchetti Bullough. They were eventually presented to New Hall – now Murray Edwards – in 1962 by Duse’s grandchildren.

Duse' gold

Efforts to understand and reconstruct the library have been ongoing. Early work by the College’s first Librarian, Sarah Newman, laid important foundations, while a major research project led by Professor Anna Sica and Fellow Librarian Alison Wilson culminated in the 2012 publication The Murray Edwards Duse Collection. That study re-established the importance of the library as a record of Duse’s intellectual and artistic evolution. As Professor Sica observed, it is ‘not just a worthy resource: it is Duse’s gold’.

Among the books on display are works by the author Grazia Deledda – the only Italian woman writer to win a Nobel Prize for Literature, whose relationship with Duse forms a particular focus of the exhibition. That connection was crystallised in the 1916 silent film Cenere, directed by Febo Mari and adapted from Deledda’s eponymous novel. The film marked Duse’s only appearance in early cinema and stands as a striking moment of artistic convergence between two major Italian figures. By including Deledda’s works, the exhibition highlights this shared creative ground and the broader cultural milieu in which both women worked. The timing of the exhibition adds further resonance: it commemorates the centenary of Duse’s death in 2024 alongside the centenary of Deledda’s Nobel Prize in 2026, bringing these two anniversaries into conversation.

Eliminating the self

As the only record in existence of Duse’s acting, the film Cenere testifies to the talent that so captivated theatre audiences. Rather than artificially assuming the roles she played, Duse reached within to achieve intense absorption in the character, a process she termed ‘eliminating the self’. ‘She is considered one of the most important actresses in the history of modern theatre,’ Elena says. ‘She was extremely talented – she was able to convey emotions even without speaking. Her gestures were very powerful and her voice was exceptionally expressive. Countless anecdotes from writers, actors and directors describe the almost hypnotic effect of her performances.’

The actress was born in Vigevano, in Northern Italy, to a family of travelling players. ‘She had a humble background and travelled all her life – often facing financial struggles, despite her fame,’ says Elena. As well as appearing in theatres across Europe and beyond, Duse spent time in Cambridge, visiting her daughter. She died of pneumonia aged 65 in Pittsburgh while on tour in the United States.

Earlier in May, as part of the wider commemorations surrounding the intertwined anniversaries of Grazia Deledda and Eleonora Duse, Elena organised a theatre workshop dedicated to the two women and their artistic dialogue, led by theatre director Ludovico Nolfi. Deledda, whose life and work form one of the central case studies in Elena’s book Seekers of Wonder (2025), remains a pivotal figure in world literature, renowned for the way her writing evokes the landscapes, traditions and inner worlds of Sardinia, an atmosphere the workshop sought to bring vividly to life through performance. 

The celebrations continued alongside the exhibition with a visit from award-winning director Pietro Marcello, whose film Duse (2025) turns away from the triumphs of Duse’s career to dwell instead on the solitude and fragility of her later years. Marcello visited the college to see the collection, while the film was screened in Cambridge in partnership with the Italian Cultural Institute in London.

The exhibition showcasing the Duse collection will be on display in the College’s main corridor until 31 May 2026, and will then reopen in September to accompany an international conference marking Deledda’s Nobel centenary. ‘Grazia Deledda’s Waves: Networks, Memories, and Legacies 100 Years After the Nobel Prize’ will take place in College on 25-26 September 2026.