On line colors
The project and its goals
The main goal of this project is to promote knowledge of the many precious manuscripts owned by the Biblioteca Riccardiana. To this purpose, our aim is to make them available to as wide and diversified of an audience as possible, by providing a user-friendly tool that facilitates many different kinds of research (for both experts and non-experts) while sharing high-quality images.
The project also aims to offer a database which can be accessed remotely (not only on site). This system also helps preserve the library’s book collections by making it possible to see all of their miniatures online.
Methods and procedures
In 1958 Maria Luisa Scuricini Greco published a study on this library’s illuminated manuscripts titled Miniature riccardiane. After caraful examination she offered a brief description of the miniatures. This revision of her work, based on more recent studies, provides a more precise, modern, and efficient tool for research. The electronic format was therefore chosen to allow for a fast, user friendly, and flexible tool that can be updated constantly.
There are 325 illuminated manuscripts in this library (almost ten percent of the total collection). During the digitazion process, all of the miniatures featuring figures and narratives have been reproduced. For illuminated initials, instead, only the most significant specimens (divided by typological categories) have been selected. Following the most common methods for describing illuminated manuscripts, this has led to the creation of an image archive connected to the database used for cataloguing the library’s collections. An ordinary software therefore guarantees fast and easy access to the data, allowing users to conduct research according to subject, author, artist, and – above all –, keywords.
When creating fields on this webpage, which we have tried to make as simple as possible, we have taken into account our users’ most important needs. We have therefore done our best to provide a considerable number of precise data while ensuring the highest speed possible.
For miscellaneous manuscripts a “window” has been created where users can type the author’s name, the title of each work in that anthology, and the related folios. The link is automatic, making it possible to check how a word relates to any given image.
Click on the images to enlarge them
Ricc. 1538, c. 12r
Ricc. 518, c. 1v
Ricc. 1538, c. 126v
How our database is structured
The structure of our database is very simple, as it is based on clear parameters and keywords that make access truly easy. The advantage of an electronic platform is obvious. For one thing, users can ask questions immediately, even if our webpage is not finalized yet, as it could always be updated at a later stage. The first fields are meant to identify the manuscript. This section of the webpage is organized in a discursive format so as to contain all data that may be considered useful information on any given miniature; for this reason, codicological and paleographic pieces of information are kept to a minimum. The description window defines the type of miniature being studied, also by adding further details. Particular attention has been paid to the string of words used to create the database. In this procedure, all the terms necessary to properly describe a miniature have been preserved; only minor elements pertaining to grammar and syntactic have been eliminated.
Please read before visiting this website: Like all databases, this too is a “work in progress”, which will be improved over time. Some information may therefore not be fully accurate. We will be grateful to all users who wish to share their corrections with us.
English translation by Megan Krynen (University of Mississippi – ISI Florence) and Elsa Vellone (University of Rochester – ISI Florence). English revision by Claire Chisholm.