Rara Project
The Rara project was launched in 2016 with a long-term perspective. It includes:
- Systematic acquisition of old prints
- Professional conservation of the collection
- Measures for optimizing storage (climate monitoring)
- Digitization of the collection (see also Digital Library)
- Codicological and scholarly processing of the collection
- Thematic research initiatives
Old Prints as Documents of Research
Since the founding of the Bibliotheca Hertziana, the acquisition of current research literature has been supplemented by the targeted development of a special collection of historical books. As with research literature, the goal was to achieve completeness in only a few areas, strictly aligned with the Institute’s research focus. Thanks to this strategy, pursued consistently for many decades, the Bibliotheca Hertziana is renowned for having the best collection of historical prints on Roman topography, travel literature focusing on Italy, and architectural theory. Serious research in these fields has always been conducted in close connection with these holdings, which continue to be regularly consulted by international experts.
Material Turn and the Old Book as Thing and Object
Until about twenty years ago, research was focused on the text and image content of old prints, which were only accessible through microfilms, photographs, or reprints of varying quality. The acquisition of original editions justified this approach. Material or exemplar-specific aspects such as preservation condition, binding, collation, provenance, or marginalia, as well as performative aspects, played a secondary role. Typically, only one edition was considered. Research approaches focusing on changes between different editions (especially important for guide literature) played at most a peripheral role in art history.
Digitization has revolutionized research on old prints and simultaneously generated a new interest in the materiality of book objects. This interest can be seen as an offshoot of the “Material Culture Studies” conducted primarily in anthropology and archaeology since the 1960s. The Bibliotheca Hertziana’s Library Department is one of the first institutions of its kind to incorporate the consequences of the Material Turn not only thematically but also politically into its long-term collection development strategy. Thus, media like books are not viewed solely as semantic carriers, whose media form is essentially meaningless, but as actors or actants (the term originates from the actor-network theory developed by Bruno Latour, John Law, Michel Callon, Madeleine Akrich, and others), i.e., as active objects (agency) whose material specifics also influence and shape the reception of the content.
This expanded understanding concerns not only the interface between the library and research but also the library itself, shaping the expanded research horizon of the BHMPI with its new strategies based on its own research.
Implementation of the Material Turn in the Collection Policy of the Library Department of the Bibliotheca Hertziana is embedded in the media-theoretical context of the post-digital.
Expansion of the Collection
The systematic expansion of the Rara collection, especially in line with the Institute's new thematic direction, is a key measure to ensure the library’s future sustainability. The following areas are prioritized: travel literature and topography beyond Italy, particularly concerning the Mediterranean region (Dalmatia, Greece, the Archipelago, Ottoman Empire, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa, Spain, and the Balearic Islands); cartography, geography, and atlases; nautical (especially navigation), colonial literature (mainly North Africa and Ethiopia).
A special new acquisition is the Vedute Romane by Piranesi, which was made possible with the support of the Tanja Michalsky Department.
Conservation
Digitized old prints are a work tool and not a replacement for the original. The library’s declared goal is not only to make Rara available but also to specifically encourage young scholars to engage with old prints. To facilitate this encounter, special funds of €600,000 for an extensive conservation campaign were requested and approved in 2016. In close cooperation with the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro e la Conservazione del Patrimonio Archivistico e Artistico (ICRPAL), a project was developed, initially for three years, in which all approximately 20,000 volumes were individually inspected for damage, cataloged in a database, and assigned to conservation measures according to urgency. A dedicated restoration workshop was set up at the Institute, where, since mid-2017, up to five restorers trained at ICRPAL have worked under the direction of Lorenzo Civiero. The project was extended until May 2023 with additional funding of €280,000.
The goal for 2025 is to establish a permanent half-time position for a restorer.