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The library is currently collaborating with the Institute’s photographic library to develop digitalisation projects classified under the umbrella title “Selected Sources of Art History and the Topography of Florence”. At present, research is being carried out into the following two topic areas: “Florentine guides dating from approx. 1600 to approx. 1800” and “Florentine family and confraternal coats of arms”. The project’s organisational internal structure is based on a modular design which enables individual topic areas to be developed in parallel with one another. Collaborations with suitable institutional partners mean that these modules will, in part, also be created externally, outside the Kunsthistorisches Institut. The final stage of the process involves their integration into an online unified consultation and navigational environment.


    
Historical guides and inventory literature
The art-historiographical, literary genre of the travel guide, in the sense of an itinerary appealing to art aficionados visiting a particular city, has its origins in Florence. In the early modern era, Florence was the first European metropolis to avail itself of this form of tendentiously panegyric self-description in order to make evident the true beauty and significance of the city, through its architectural and artistic achievements, to the foreign visitor. The inventory, an alternative guide-related publication dedicated to conveying such information developed in tandem with these guides, and described the city's artworks and architectural structures in a systematic manner without following the topographic the logic of an itinerary. The genres are linked as a result of both their content-related, didactic design and the evaluation of the artworks and architectural structures they describe. This format is derived from the contemporary preoccupation with art historiography and artist' biographies emerging in Florence at the time. This provides an insight into the complex systems of perception related to works of art, on the one hand, and the development of criteria for the evaluation of such works, on the other. An examination of these themes in relation to the guides and the inventory literature provides the necessary research framework, which is being carried out in tandem with the digitalisation of the material in question.

In addition to the full text digitalisation and transcription of source texts which already enjoy a widely developed, effective technical basis, software-related solutions for use in the analysis of editing comparisons will be examined and adapted in line with project-specific requirements. The Max Planck Institute of the History of Science, which has accumulated extensive experience in the digital editing of historical source texts, is supporting the project in an advisory capacity and has also demonstrated its interest in participating in the development of equipment for use in the visualisation of editing-related variations of a historical text.

The project is planned as an unequivocally inter-institutional undertaking. Although the initial phase will be entrusted to the Kunsthistorisches Institut, detailed discussions with the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and with local libraries and archives have been conducted in the run-up to the project launch. The list of texts due for processing within the framework of the project comprises several hundred titles which will be recorded in the text database successively.


  http://echo.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
 
Coats of Arms used by Florentine Families, Confraternities and Hospitals
The Kunsthistorisches Institut has been in possession of a catalogue containing sketches of more than 2,800 coats of arms, predominantly belonging to Florentine families, since 1909. This unique, extensive and painstakingly detailed collection, which was evidently compiled by a single, anonymous late 19th-century copyist, has become a popular tool used during the identification of coats of arms located on diverse structures such as palace façades, tombs and altarpieces.

The initial phase of the project, which began in 2005, comprises the digitalisation of the collection of coat of arms sketches in addition to the creation of codified descriptions of the said escutcheons that conform to international heraldry standards (blazons). Descriptions generated in this manner will be added to the surnames, along with other information, and registered in a database structure designed to facilitate related research.

A tool which surpasses the scope of previous navigation possibilities within current image databases is currently being developed in collaboration with the Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologia dell’Informazione (ISTI) of the Consiglio Nazionale di Ricerca (CNR) in Pisa, namely; computer-assisted image recognition as a search option. In addition to verbal indexing, which guarantees the coat of arms’ location in the database by registering them under diverse content-related categories, a software image recognition solution is being developed specifically for the coat of arms project. Here, the digitalised images are automatically deconstructed into discrete image areas which are then aligned with similar areas in other images with the aid of an algorithm. The search results include images which display the highest levels of similarity. The Kunsthistorisches Institut will use this new form of visual image analysis as a basis for its own research in other relevant areas, and will even be in a position to develop new research fields as a result.


    
Translatio nummorum - The Perception of Classical Antiquity via Ancient Coins by Antiquaries in the Renaissance
In the age of the renaissance humanism antique coins were not only favoured collectors' items but also played an important role in rediscovering classical antiquity. Humanists recognised for the first time the high value of these coins as a source for research in the fields of history, archaeology, geography, mythology and art history. This marked the beginning of numismatics as a scientific discipline on its own.

For the purpose of a thorough investigation into antique coins and their reception by antiquaries in early modern times, the Kunsthistorische Institut in Florenz (Max-Planck-Institut), the Numismatic Collection of the National Museums in Berlin (Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz) and the Census of Antique Works of Art and Architecture Known in the Renaissance (Humboldt-Universität Berlin / Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften) have joint together in an interdisciplinary project "translatio nummorum – The Perception of Classical Antiquity via Ancient Coins by Antiquaries in the Renaissance". The project is financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (line of funding: "The role of translation in the humanities"). The aim of this project is to conduct a comparative analysis of the role of antique coins regarding the research, reception and (re-)construction of the ancient culture and history from BC 49 to AD 96 by scientists and antiquaries in the age of the Renaissance.

The project is based on three conceptual pillars:
1. Making available all the literary and visual sources in a
    digital compendium
2. Creation of a data base with images and scientific
    descriptions of the original coins (if available)
3. Evaluation, interpretation and integration of the sources
    and artefacts within the context of the Census Project

The Kunsthistorische Institut in Florenz holds a number of the most important numismatic books from the 16th and early 17th century. These will be gradually digitalized and transliterated and then made accessible to the public as a digital open access collection on the Internet. Consequently, the core of a digital library of the historical numismatic literature will be created, a "Digital Corpus of Antiquarian Books on Ancient Coins in Early Modern Times". The database is to be further complemented and expanded with works from other libraries.

By providing the original coins the Numismatic Collection in Berlin (http://www.smb.museum/ikmk), the largest coin collection in Germany, will contribute to the verification of the literary tradition. The Numismatic Collection will identify, describe and take photos of all its coins from Caesar to Domitian and present them in the interactive online catalogue.

The Census Project (http://census.bbaw.de/easydb/) connects the literature on ancient coins of the 16th and the early 17th century, digitalized by the KHI, with the verified original ancient coin types from the Numismatic Collection in Berlin. By including these documents and reproductions into the Census' database a link is established with testimonials of other classifications of art.

The time frame of the project is three years (start April 2009). Workshops and lectures will be held in conjunction with the project. Its completion is scheduled for 2012 with a special exhibition at the Bodemuseum in Berlin. The project intends to gradually expand the digital compendium of fonts, original coins and data for their interpretation beyond the scope of the project.


   
PRO FIRENZE FUTURISTA - A DIGITAL RESEARCH ARCHIVE FOR FUTURISM IN FLORENCE
The Library of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz - Max-Planck-Institut, in collaboration with the Biblioteca Marucelliana in Florence has developed an ambitious project to convert rare documents, books and journals from the period of Italian Futurism to digital format. The online archive project was presented February 2010 - on occasion of the closing celebrations for the centenary of the first futurist Manifest. The basic idea is to make available documents of crucial importance and to provide public online access free of charge. The digital archive is conceived as a platform for a structured presentation of different kinds of rare material usually with restricted access in the public Libraries and Collections, where they are preserved. The website will also include information and discussions related to Florentine and, in general, Italian Futurism.

The nucleus of the database will be composed of the complete collection of the Florentine journal 'L'Italia Futurista' published in 51 issues between 1916 and 1918. The newsprint pages are digitized with non invasive techniques in order to respect the fragility of their original support. The copies used for the digitization are mostly preserved in the Biblioteca Marucelliana and a part in the rare book collection of the Library of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence. 'L'Italia Futurista' represents the main forum of artists and writers connected to the so called second Florentine futurism and published articles by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, the 'spiritus rector' and founder of the futurist movement. In order to illustrate the activities of the circle of artists, poets, intellectuals, who formed and strongly influenced the avant-garde movement in Florence, a selection of digital reproductions of significant documents - letters, books, photographs, libretti, drawings, audio (visual) materials etc. - will be included in the database collection. All of these documents will be connected by the attribution of Keywords and enriched by further information, for example on people or places. An interactive map will allow one to follow and trace the activities of the Florentine futurists. The database will provide research tools for names, locations, titles of articles or keywords in German, Italian and English supported by the application of an OCR software tool, thus allowing a systematic research and analysis of all textual documents included in the database. The documents will also be arranged in 'portals' dedicated to predefined topics, which will enable the user find specific information on selected subjects, as for example on the English poet and artist Mina Loy, who frequented the group of young Florentine futurists around the journal 'Lacerba' during her stay in Florence. Subsequently, she was acclaimed as the ambassador of the futurist movement in the United States, though her work is little known among Italian scholars.

The Library of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz has also started to digitize systematically the futurist's books and catalogues preserved in its own Rare book collection. The structure of the database and the homepage has been conceived in order to enable its expansion also in future. Partners include the Biblioteca Marucelliana, which has a central role in the project by providing their copies of 'L'Italia Futurista', the Fondazione Primo Conti, the Gabinetto Scientifico letterario G.P. Vieussieux and the Fondazione Longhi in Florence as well as Maestro Daniele Lombardi, who all have confirmed their support and collaboration. The Library of the Kunsthistorisches Institut is interested in involving other copartners as well for the project. The website will provide links to other digital archives with documents on Italian futurism.


    
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