Holdings
Taxonomy
The Photothek’s classification system goes back to the early time of the history of the institution, it thus reflects historical patterns of German scholarship, serving at the same time until now the daily task of archivists to arrange the holdings in a intelligible way.
The standard-format photographs are freely accessible in open shelves and are organised into the categories of Architecture, Sculpture, Painting and Applied Arts. Photographs of Antique art (architecture, sculpture, painting and mosaic) form their own section.
The Architecture section is divided into epochs and, within these, into regions and locations. It also includes the sub-divisions Urbanism, Architectural Drawings, Landscape Architecture, Museology and Stage Design, as well as Non-Italian Architecture.
The Painting and Sculpture sections are likewise organised into epochs. Within each epoch, the works of known artists are arranged in alphabetical order of artist name, followed by anonymous works arranged according to their current location. Drawings, prints and miniatures are integrated into these sections on the basis of what they show. The Painting section also includes the sub-division Portraits and Self-portraits in the Uffizi.
The Applied Arts section is organised by material and object type, and within each respective category by epoch.
The Photothek's holdings also include large-format photographs. For conservation reasons special conditions apply to the consultation of these photographs. The same restrictions apply to the approximately 1,000 unbound prints such as engravings and lithographs housed in the collection.
The Photothek's holdings of analogue and digital photographs, negatives, etc. are being continuously expanded through photo campaigns, acquisitions, bequests and donations. Photo campaigns by the Institute concentrate on the documentation of monuments to which the public has little or no access, such as private palaces and villas in Florence and its environs, and non-accessible areas within churches and monasteries. The Photothek also cooperates with museums and institutions as the EUI (European University Institute) or the Palazzo Vecchio on photo campaigns focused on specific themes.
Notable new acquisitions
2025
Photographic campaign Villa Salviati
The photographic campaign at the Villa Salviati focused on the works of Giovanni Francesco Rustici (1475–1554). In total, around 100 digital images were produced. The campaign was made possible through a collaboration with the EUI (European University Institute, Florence), to whose campus the Villa belongs.
2024
Fondo Breccia Fratadocchi
Between 1965 and 1975, the architects Tommaso Breccia Fratadocchi and Paolo Cuneo traveled through Armenia, Turkey, and Iran. During these journeys, Breccia Fratadocchi photographed architecture and landscapes in both color and black and white. From this body of material, 900 color slides entered the Photothek as a donation.
2023
Photographic campaign Palazzo Buontalenti
The ground floor of the Palazzo Buontalenti in Florence (Casino Mediceo) was frescoed between 1621 and 1623 with one of the most extensive dynastic cycles of the Medici family. Since 2017, the Palazzo has been home to the Florence School of Transnational Governance (EUI – European University Institute, Florence). The photographic campaigns produced more than 300 digital photographs.
2022
Malandrini Collection
Ferruccio Malandrini is regarded as one of the first collectors of historical photographs in Italy. His collection was acquired by the Photothek in 2022. The collection comprises around 6,000 single photographs, 6,200 photographs set in 155 photo albums, and 1,500 photographs.
2020/2021
Album "Ricordi di Messina e Reggio, 28. Dic. 1908"
The 48 photographs taken after the earthquake in Messina and Reggio Calabria were compiled into an album by a Milanese photographer and show the destroyed streets with collapsed buildings, but also people clearing up the rubble.
Daguerreotype
The daguerreotype with the plate hallmark of the Scovill Manufacturing Company dates from the years 1840/1850 and shows a mother with her daughter. As an important object of study for historical photographic techniques, the daguerreotype enlarges the special collection "Cimelia Photographica".
Gigapixel Images
Gigapixel images are mosaics of high-resolution digital images that allow a close-up view of the photographed objects that is not possible on site. Gigapixel images of the stained glass windows of San Francesco in Assisi and those of the silver altar for the Florentine Baptistery were acquired from the photographer Ghigo Roli.
2018/2019
Travel Photographs from Egypt
Individual photographs and an album from 1865 – 1885 by Félix Bonfils, Abdullah Frères, Gamianoset Sarolides, Luigi Fiorillo and the Zangaki Brothers show architecture and vedute in Egypt, mostly from Cairo.
Stereographs
In recent years, many stereographs from the 19th and early 20th century have been acquired, including views of Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples and Jerusalem. In addition to well-known photographers such as Anton Hautmann, Carlo Naya or Giorgio Sommer, there are also stereoscopic images by publishers as Berry, Kelley & Chadwick or Chromoplast images from the german Farbenphotographischen Gesellschaft (FPhG).
2016/2017
Fondo Enlart
The collection of 82 photographs derives from the holdings of Camille Enlart (1862 – 1927), which the art historian himself took for study purposes on his journeys to Syria, Lebanon and the Holy Land. The paper prints of different formats are mostly inscribed on the backs. They show exterior and interior views as well as the architectural sculpture of ten different religious buildings from Abu Gosh, Nazareth, Nablus and Margat, among others.
Archivio Hautmann
The Photothek acquired the archive of German photographer and sculptor Anton Hautmann (Munich 1821 – Florence 1862), consisting of approx. 1,500 glass plate negatives, 80% of them produced using the wet collodion process. The negatives, which are in varying states of preservation, show among other things buildings, townscapes, artworks, landscapes, animals and portraits in a range of formats.
Moscioni-Album
The existing holdings of photographs by the Rome-based photographer Romualdo Moscioni (Viterbo 1849 – Rome 1925) have grown thanks to the acquisition of one of his albums. The small (17.3 x 23.5 cm) volume, produced before 1903, is titled Roma and contains 18 albumen prints showing views of Rome.
The Photothek's card catalogues were introduced in 1902 and cover accessions from 1897 up to the start of electronic cataloguing in 1993. A project for the digitisation of the card catalogues is ongoing.
A card catalogue in topographical order and a card catalogue by artist name are available for each of the sections Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, and Applied Arts as well as for Drawings. Prints have their own card catalogue by artist and engraver name. The iconographic catalogue covers themes and subjects represented in works of art from all sections.
Card catalogue by artist name
The catalogue lists, in alphabetical order, the names of the artists whose works are represented in the Photothek.
Card catalogue by location
This card catalogue is organized topographically in alphabetical order. The catalogue begins with Italian sites, followed by sites outside Italy in alphabetical order. Each location is subdivided into churches and religious institutions, museums, villas, palaces and private collections.
Card catalogue by iconography
This catalogue is organized in terms of iconographic themes such as e.g. Old and New Testament, lives of the saints, mythology, literature, history, portraiture and genre scenes.
The inventory books and accession registers were maintained from 1898 to 1993. All new accessions since 1993 are recorded in a database.
The entries in the inventory books contain the date of inventorying, the consecutive inventory number and the location of the item within the Photothek (shelf mark), together with details of the object depicted and of the image's provenance and type. They include the concordances between the inventory numbers and the accession register. Negatives are registered in separate lists, while born-digital photographs are inventoried and managed with an internal project database.
A digitization of the inventory books is underway. See more
The Photothek's archive of negatives comprises approximately 57,000 negatives in the form of glass plates, acetate and polyester films, as well as color slides in various formats – from the 1860s to the 21st century. These negatives come either from the Institute's own photo campaigns or from acquisitions, donations and bequests.
Two climate chambers were set up in the premises in Via Modena to store the archive of photo negatives, which require special conditions in terms of stable temperature and humidity. The chambers, one with storage conditions of 5 °C and 35 % relative humidity, the other with 15 °C and 35 % relative humidity, were designed with the expertise of the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics in Stuttgart.
The Photothek has its own analogue and digital photo laboratories.
By 1903 at the latest, the Institute had established an analog photographic laboratory for developing black-and-white film and producing paper prints. During the various relocations of the Photothek, the laboratory was transferred each time and subsequently expanded or modernised. Following the transition to digital photography in 2004, film development was discontinued, and in 2010 the production of paper prints was also phased out, as photographic requests were exclusively for digital copies. However, the analog laboratory continues to play an important role in research and project work – not only in fostering an understanding of historical photographic techniques and processes, but also for the analysis of photographic objects and for conservation and restoration purposes.
At the digitisation stations, the Institute's holdings (negatives and prints) are scanned or digitally photographed and edited.