The documentary archive is the result of a long and complex process of searching for, selecting and organising documents that can now be used to retrace the history of Eni and its various companies, along with that of the Italian oil industry and Italian energy policy. The documents stored here date back to the early 20th century, with over 30,000 archived pieces listed. This number increases from time to time with the arrival of new materials that are no longer in regular use within the companies in question. All documents produced at least 30 years ago are freely available for consultation. The documents provide detailed descriptions and can be reproduced for study and research purposes. The most significant and frequently viewed collections are also available in digital format:

This archive comprises over 500,000 images that have been recovered and preserved and that bear testimony to the development of Italy from the oil exploration work of the 1930s and then methanisation, to the birth of service stations and refineries, the working life of technicians both in Italy and abroad and the holiday villages built for employees. The majority of the photographs were produced by leading photographers, including Bruno Stefani, Federico Patellani, Aldo Ballo, Sam Waagenaar and Mimmo Jodice, and major agencies like Rotofoto, Giacomelli, Publifoto and Magnum.

The audiovisual archive comprises over 5,000 films, most of them on reels or in Betacam or VHS format and taken from the Agi film library, from the former Snam, Agip or Agip Petroli warehouses, from Shell Italiana (formerly IP), from Eni communications or from Folon’s personal archive. The film library houses various documents of great artistic value that have been restored and are now available in digital format, shot by directors like Bernardo Bertolucci, the Taviani brothers, Vittorio De Seta, Giuseppe Ferrara and Gillo Pontecorvo.

These documents bear testimony to the extensive technical design operations undertaken by Eni since the 1950s, which include not only oil pipelines, ships and platforms but also buildings designed to house offices, service stations, motels, employee housing, churches and holiday villages. These works were produced primarily by internal designers belonging to the technical departments of Agip, Snam and various other companies, as well as a number of big names such as Mario Bacciocchi, Marcello Nizzoli, Mario Ridolfi, Marco Bacigalupo and Ugo Ratti.

The technical drawings archive is made up of the following collections:

The site houses the complete collection of "Il Gatto Selvatico (1955-1965)", the magazine commissioned by Enrico Mattei and run by poet Attilio Bertolucci. The magazine, which was aimed at employees and had a readership of over 12,000, was printed in colour and contained a lot of photographs, making it a veritable cultural laboratory, on which writers such as Leonardo Sciascia, Goffredo Parise, Natalia Ginzburg and Carlo Emilio Gadda all worked. The magazine included sport, cinema, fashion and culinary sections and offers an insight into what life in Italy was like during the economic boom. The other, more recent major company magazine housed here is "Ecos (1972-2002)", which various prominent names, such as Primo Levi, also contributed to.

In this section, you can find posters from the most important Agip advertising campaigns, as well as the objects that best represent the history of the company and its main products, like the historic Supercortemaggiore petrol. There are images of the collection featuring tools used for oil extraction since the 1920s, petrol stations, Enrico Mattei’s desk and car. Postcards and company gadgets bearing the six-legged dog logo are among the things on show that bring back memories of the past.

This section contains a wide bibliography on the company’s heritage, including monographs on Italian and international events and university theses on the history of Eni. It also contains brochures, company publications and a substantial core of books on the life and work of Enrico Mattei, founder of Eni. The library also brings together informative and specialist texts dedicated to great international photographers and the main photography schools of the 20th century.

This contains about 200 interviews, including video recordings and transcripts, from the 1980s onwards. These are the testimonies of men and women who have held different positions at Eni, as well as figures from the worlds of politics, economics and culture in Italy. All of them have been involved in important moments in the history of Italy’s favourite six-legged dog. Their stories provide an unfiltered and illuminating insight into the many aspects of the oil company and its most important subsidiaries.