Digital acquisition of ancient codes, manuscripts and texts realized on behalf of the University Libraries of Bologna. The team has worked with modern equipments, facing the problematics originated from the big digital data. Thanks to the collaboration with the Scientific Police of Bologna and the CINECA of Casalecchio we have realized a web site for the free consultation of the acquired materials.

The plan. With a team of collaborators from the publishing house CLUEB (Bologna, Italy) we have digitally acquired more than 4,000 particularly meaningful pages tracted from ancient books, manuscripts, parchments and papyruses conserved in the University Libraries of Bologna. These Works are generally of difficult accessibility to people. The construction of a web site has allowed to create a permanent gallery of these patrimonies, making them enjoyable by anyone through the consultation of the images.

The Works. The operations of digital acquisition last a full month and the activity has been carried out near the central University Library and near the Archiginnasio, where we have set the acquisition station, while the computer processing were situated at the CLUEB House. The team of acquisition and post-production comprised the technicians Massimo Gerussi, Valerio Manieri and the undersigned, while Luigi Guardigli (CLUEB) supervisioned the operations. Leonardo Quaquarelli (University of Bologna) has maintained the contacts with the Libraries and the central University Library, regulating the development of the operations not directly subjected to our control.

The Equipment. We used a digital station based on the Eyelike DCS Camera, able to acquire high resolution images (from 2,000x2,000 to 6,000x6,000 pixel, 300 dpi, RGB) in few seconds, thanks also to the data transmission via optical fibers and to the speed of the firewire LaCie hard disks. As processors we used two G3/G4 Macintosh with 300Mb RAM destined to the Eyelike software. We storaged the images (30Mb in average; 120Gb total) on DLT4000 Tandberg tapes and on 4.7Gb recordable Pioneer DVD-ROM.

The web site. Ing. Luigi Guardigli planned the alphanumeric database for the recovery of the images and the structure of the site. The technicians of the Scientific Police Luca Mannocci and Lorenzo Garuti constructed the database, by interfacing it to the site constructed by me. Other collaborations arrived from CINECA, which currently hosts the database, the images and the site LIBRIT. The site and the plan has been supported from the Ministero dei Beni Culturali, from the University of Bologna and the Committee Bologna 2000. The first day of opening the site totalized 16,000 accesses...

The Manuscripts. Among the Works of great interest, I signal the writtens of Ulisse Aldrovandi, like the De Animalibus Insectis (1602), representing insects and arachnids with wonderful watercolors, and the Monstrorum Historia (1642), on human and animal mutations. Then, the work of J.J. Scheuchzer, the Herbarium Diluvianum (1723), with fantasy fossils. And the registries of the Executed Ones in Bologna from the year 1030 by hand of the Ordo of St. Mary of the Death. And the books with silver covers, the papyruses, the medicine and pharmacy manuscripts in Greek or in Arab (Dioscorides), the messali and the histories of saints and of exorcisms.