DOBiPS – Data Oriented Biblical Paratext Studies

This project is devoted to the digital treatment of the paratexts of the Latin Bible.
In the study of biblical manuscripts, paratexts – support tools for the reading that accompany the Holy Scriptures – have so far received only marginal and unsystematic attention. This stems from a conception of the biblical text as a uniform and unchanging entity, which has oriented exegesis and philology toward the reconstruction of a single, stable text. The large-scale exploration of paratextual elements may indeed provide new information about the contexts of production and fruition of the biblical book and help shed light on certain aspects of the manuscript tradition.
The investigation focuses on the books of theOctateuch, investigated in three well-defined groups of Bibles in relation to the centers of production: the Tours, Atlantean and Beneventan Bibles .
The results of the research are articulated in three main lines, in which traditional methods of analysis – codicological, paleographic and philological – are integrated with the potential offered by digital representation and interaction with computational sciences:

– a digital edition of the summaries (capitula) premised on the books of the Octateuch;

– the creation of a database that collects and surveys the main paratexts found in biblical manuscripts;

– exploring the potential of artificial intelligence, and in particular Layout Document Analysis, in the automatic detection and semantic classification of paratexts.

Links to partner institutions and reference sites:
– DOBiPS and the LIBeR Laboratory.
– University of Udine, Department of Humanities and Cultural Heritage Studies.

MeMo-ViAM: Memory of Montecassino – Virtual and Accessible Museum

National project coordinator: Ivana Burno – University of Cassino and Southern Lazio

Team: Giulia Orofino, Roberta Casavecchia, Nicola Tangari, Andrea Improta, Laura Saturnino (research fellow), Roberta Vasta (research fellow), Emanuela Elba (Consultant) – University of Cassino and Southern Lazio

Partner institutions: Sapienza University of Rome; Rome Technopole.

Funding: PRIN 2022 PNRR – CUP: H53D23011520006; supported by additional funding from the Ecosystem of Innovation “Rome Technopole” (ECS000024, PNRR Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.5, NextGenerationEU – CUP: H33C22000420001).

The project is intended to develop a web-based platform dedicated to the Virtual Museum of the Memory of Montecassino. Through 3D reconstructions, virtual lecterns, animations, texts, and images, the platform will offer an immersive journey into the history of Cassinese book art, situating it within the broader historical narrative of the Abbey and tracing its evolution to the present day. The principal objective is to ensure the accessibility of Montecassino’s manuscript heritage to a broad and diverse audience, including individuals with visual and hearing impairments, by employing assistive technologies and specific tools designed to overcome perceptual and sensory barriers. Furthermore, the project envisages the development of a smartphone application that will replicate the platform’s content, thereby providing users with access to all digital resources associated with individual artifacts housed in the museum and library spaces.

Links to partner institutions and reference sites:
– Bibliography of manuscripts in Benevento script (University of Cassino and e del Lazio Meridionale) = BMB.
– Foundation Rome Technopole.
– Easy Museum Research Laboratory (University of Cassino and Lazio Meridionale).