Map, explore an ancient one in high definition | Wired Italy

An ancient one map of the Armenian Church becomes a digital image in gigapixel resolution thanks to Haltadefinizione, the tech company of the Franco Cosimo Panini publishing house specializing in digitization of ancient paintings, documents and manuscripts. There Armenian map of Count Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, commissioned by him in Constantinople and built in 1691, it will be projected during the inauguration of the show Armenian traces at the University Library of Bologna (Bub)which will be presented on Friday 17 February at 10 at the library as part of international congress Armenia, a multi-millennial peoplepromoted by the Alma mater studiorum of Bologna.

The Roll 24 of the Fondo Marsili, annotated on the reverse as Tabula Chorographica Armenicawas found in the Library more than thirty years ago during the preparatory work of the cartographic exhibition Explorations in the library. Accomplished on 16 sheets of paper glued on canvasthe map, characterized by impressive dimensions (358 x 120 cm)is dotted with colorful watercolor drawings and from captions in Armenian relating to hundreds of monasteries, churches, hermitages, sanctuaries and places of worship divided according to the four circumscriptions or catholicosates existing at the time of its creation.

In the Digital Library section of the Bub it is possible to investigate the scanned map front and back from Haltadefinizione with extraordinary clarity and detail. In addition to Armenian map They were digitized a selection of documents and scrolls of value of the Marsili Fund. The technology of photo stitching with scanning on the nodal point fielding allows you to capture large and small formats with a level of detail that can exceed 1000 ppi. The shots, dozens or hundreds, depending on the size of the documents, united together through a algorithm of stitching which allows you to get a final image with extraordinary definition, were carried out with specific precautions and using a rigid, repeatable and reliable protocol, in total respect of the work. The digitization of the large formats of Bub’s Fondo Marsili was performed by High definition within the project The Luigi Ferdinando Marsili museum, co-financed by Carisbo Foundation.

The exhibition

The Bub, like other historical libraries in Italy, owns numerous ancient documents in the Armenian language, both handwritten and printed, a concrete sign of the cultural relations that have been established between our country and this people since the Early Middle Ages. In addition to Armenian mapthe exhibition offers visitors 3 illuminated manuscripts and 9 printed volumeseach of which represents a particular moment of the Italian-Armenian relations or, more generally, of the contacts between Armenians, Italy and Europe through the press.