California Italian Studies

Following legal disputes upon the death of Carmelo Bene (1937–2002), his archive was dispersed, and no inventory of the materials has ever been published. My article is a first attempt to organize the documents that were part of Bene’s original archive, reconstructing over fifty manuscript documents that are organized thematically and for each of which is provided a description of the material. My reconstruction of Bene's handwritten documents includes records that were subsequently lost, and also presents material related to projects for works that, although never realized by Bene, are nevertheless of extreme interest for a deeper understanding of his artistic production.