Memoria Giocosa Bibliomuseo has its origins in the collection of toys started and increased over the years by the Viennese Fritz Billig who, after the Nazi annexation of Austria, fled to New York, taking toys with him. In 1979, the collection (about 2,700 lithographed tin toys of European, American and Asian manufacture from the 1920s to the 1960s) was bequeathed to Lisa and Franco Palmieri, Billig's daughter and son-in-law.
The museum is divided into over two hundred exhibition floors where each toy lives in its historical context, telling the socio-economic and industrial evolution of the twentieth century, from the steam engine of the industrial revolution - 1850 - to the end of the tin toy with the advent of plastic - 1962 - when the chemist Giulio Natta won the Nobel Prize for chemistry and Montecatini's Moplen was born.
Toys tell the world and illustrate what books describe. The museum therefore offers a thematic library service on: the history of toys, the history of street games, a large collection of pop-up books on fairy tales and the tin toys of comic strip characters. In addition, the library of over 2,000 volumes includes Italian humour and satire fiction as well as a photographic archive of the 20th century.
Educational books on the history of toys and comic strips and nursery rhymes are available: La Memoria giocosa, La commedia dei fumetti, Filastrocche e girotondi della tradizione popolare italiana, all published by Ares, Milan.
In addition, the Museum exhibits a 27 square metre railway landscape furnished with tin reproductions of the thematic architecture - stations, overpasses, level crossings, shelters, cottages and bridges - on which four trains run on electric rails in "zero" scale (1/13).
There is also a 60-seat theatre.
The educational visit lasts a couple of hours.
Information
Friday and Saturday:
10.00-12.00 and 15.00-19.00
Other days open by reservation
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Location
To find out about all accessibility services, visit the Rome accessible section.
