Managing cultural heritage beyond professional boundaries:

problem or opportunity?

Maria Luisa RussoUniversity of Turin

Timoty LeonardiCapitulary Library,

Vercelli

IFLA Satellite Meeting, Turin, 13-14 August 2014

Traditional boundaries

• Characteristics of items• “Written” cultural heritage and

works of art• Books and documents• Archival bond

Different points of view

• UNESCO Memory of the World• “Case museo”• BAM (Germany joint portal for libraries,

archives and museums)

Bewteen library and archive: personal fonds

• Lack of clear original structure• Is the hierarchical rearrangement

suitable?• Is the distinction between library and

archive useful for the user?

The Paul Kahle Fonds

• Paul Ernst Kahle (1875-1964)• Specialization in oriental languages

and cultures• Several documentary typologies• The “laboratory” of the intellectual

Proposing an integrated view

• KADMOS project (Kahle Documents Management, Organization and Study), funded by Regione Piemonte - Directorate for Innovation, Research, University

• Software: CollectiveAccess• Hierarchical structure + full-text search• Links among different items

The book as material object

Readability vs physical preservation

• Limp paper bindings of XVIII century onwards

• Diffusion of a more attentive approach

Book as material object – the project “SIGEC legature”

• Funded by Regione Piemonte - Settore Residenze, Collezioni reali e Soprintendenza beni librari - and Centro Studi Piemontesi

• Premise: the printed collection by F. Malaguzzi, “De libris compactis” (9 voll, 1995-2013)

The project “SIGEC legature”

Aims of the project:• Creation of a database of bookbindings

preserved in Piedmont• Data entry of the printed collection “De libris

compactis”• Enlargement of the survey

Software used for works of art (SIGECweb):

model adaptation

Entries

The book as material object

There will need to be a radical change in attitude towards books, a move away from the library, where they are seen as tools to be read, towards the museum, where they are seen as historic artefacts whose preservation must include the materials from which they are made.

N. Pickwoad, 2011

The Cathedral Treasure Museumof Vercelli

www.tesorodelduomovc.it

Tesoro del Duomo

A strict relationship between museum, library and archives

The Museum

The Capitulary Library and Archives

Reliquary of Holy Virgin, St. Catherine and St. Barnabas (second half 14° century)

Silver embossed, open-work, engraved and gilded; copper repousseè and gilded; enamels; coral.

Inventory of the Cathedral (1426)

Manuscript V (1350)

The Lazarus Project: 2013

http://www.lazarusprojectimaging.com/previous-projects/vercelli-book-project/

Vercelli Book (second half 10th century)

Mappamundi (12th – 13th century)

Multispectral imaging systemGregory Heyworth - University of MississippiKen Boydston - Megavision Santa Barbara CA

The Lazarus Project: 2014

Codex Evangeliorum Vercellensis(half 4th century), codex A

Vercelli Book

XRF, Artax (Bruker)Ira Rabin & Oliver Hahn - BAM Berlin & CSMC Hamb

start

Vercelli BookFolio 26r

end

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Thank you for your attention!

marialuisa.russo@unito.it

timoty.leonardi@tesorodelduomovc.it