Tag Archives: DDH-Reflection

Diary of a DH tourist part 2

I conclude my “holiday of DH” diary with a reflection on a potential research opportunity that I have encountered. The Biblioteca Panizzi, my hometown’s excellent public library, is building a resource called Biblioteca Digitale Reggiana, where it presents high-quality scans of its most precious manuscripts, including Piero della Francesca’s De Prospectiva Pingendi and the manuscripts of scientist Lazzaro Spallanzani . Yet this is all they are, scans with some metadata but no transcription or encoding. As such, their utility for DH research is rather limited. Yet Spallanzani was a central figure in the scientific debates of the eighteenth century. The writings of his kinswoman and teacher Laura Bassi, professor of experimental physics in Bologna, have just been digitised by Stanford in collaboration with the Archiginnasio Library in Bologna. Surely our Lazzaro deserves the same treatment? Time to find a funder when I am back at work…