Scope and Content Note
The diaries and related material of Conte Galeazzo Ciano (1903-1944) span the years 1939-1946. The collection consists of an incomplete set of positive photostats made from the microfilm of the original diaries and working papers relating to their publication as The Ciano Diaries, in 1946, by Doubleday and Company, Inc., edited by Hugh Gibson, an American diplomat.
The original diaries of Count Galezazzo Ciano, Benito Mussolini’s minister for foreign affairs, were smuggled out of Italy by Countess Edda Mussolini Ciano shortly after her husband’s execution in 1944. She sold the serial rights to the Chicago Daily News, which published the diaries in an abridged form. She then consented to have them microfilmed; the positive photostats of the originals included in this gift were made from that microfilm. The location of the original diaries was not determined at the time the collection was donated to the Library of Congress in 1955.
The dates covered by the Doubleday edition of the diaries are January 1, 1939-December 23, 1943; the dates for the working materials are 1944-1946. There are periods in the diaries for which there are no entries. There are also gaps in the photostats. Entries for January 2-13, July 27-30, and August 1-16, 1939; June-November, 1942; and with a few exceptions, 1943, are missing.
The diaries include records of Ciano’s meetings with Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, German foreign minister Jaochim von Ribbentrop, foreign ambassadors, and other political figures during the war period.