Vivi Papi began to take an interest in the interior of the basilica of San Vittore in the 1960s on an occasional basis, mainly photographing, for art editors, the altar area, the canvas depicting the Mass of St. Gregory by Giovan Battista Crespi, known as Cerano, and some details of the chapels. The photos were taken partly on color slides and partly on 10x12cm and 24x36mm black/white film.
In 1967 he documented Castelli’s wooden pulpits and chancels with overall shots and photographs of individual panels, on 24x36 mm and 10x12 cm black/white film. On behalf of the parish he documented part of the San Vittore treasury and the picture gallery, with 24x36 mm and 10x12 cm black/white film and a few color shots.
In the 1970s he collaborated with architect Bruno Ravasi on the restoration of the Bernascone bell tower, taking negative black/white 24x36 mm shots, a few 24x36 mm color slides and some panoramic shots, also on 24x36 mm color slides, from the top of the tower.
In 1982 he was commissioned to carry out a photographic campaign aimed at the realization of a volume on the basilica of San Vittore, the bell tower and the Baptistery, which ended in the book Nel cuore di Varese, edited by Enrico Cattaneo and Silvano Colombo, Lativa Editions, 1982.
He took detailed photographs of the interior and exterior (dome and roof) and took the opportunity to execute numerous views of downtown Varese from the top of the bell tower. He also photographed the bell tower and several details of it, partly on positive film (in different formats: 24x36 mm, 6x7 cm, 10x12 cm) and partly on black/white negative.
Other shots were taken again in San Vittore in the years between 1984 and 2000. Initially, he documented part of the restorations of the years 1984-1985 with 24x36 cm color negatives (to which was added a 10x12 negative taken at the end of the restorations of the Rosary Chapel); later, in the early 1990s, he made a complete photographic campaign of the frescoes and canvases of the Morazzone. In 1995 he photographed the new altar by Floriano Bodini and eventually worked occasionally for other clients, taking new shots of a chancel and some small details in the altar area.
Copies of all these images are kept in the archives.
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