Memory of Montecassino: the power of collaboration between research, results and comparison
Over the course of these years, the MeMo project has consolidated itself not only as an ambitious program of digitization of the valuable written records preserved in the Abbey, but also as a point of reference and a catalyst for new and promising activities. This has stimulated the interest of a wide range of professionals and scholars and sparked a lively and fruitful dialogue among experts, librarians, institutions, and researchers.
The strength of the project is the constant and dynamic collaboration among its partners, which takes place in ever new and exciting forms. Recently, two particularly significant study days were held, during which the first relevant results of MeMo were presented to both scientific and non-scientific audiences.
Medieval documents in Manus Online: challenges, attempts and possible solutions
Sapienza University of Rome, Alexandria University Library, February 26, 2025
The Sapienza Research Unit, coordinated by Professors Cristina Mantegna and Francesca Santoni, coordinated a conference aimed at officially presenting the “Document Card” integrated into the Manus Online database in order to facilitate the description of medieval and modern loose documents. This represents the outcome of the fruitful and constant dialogue during the MeMo project activities with ICCU (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico).
The Sapienza Research Unit, coordinated by Professors Cristina Mantegna and Francesca Santoni, coordinated a conference aimed at officially presenting the “Document Card” integrated into the Manus Online database in order to facilitate the description of medieval and modern loose documents. This represents the outcome of the fruitful and constant dialogue during the MeMo project activities with ICCU (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico).
The meeting provided a valuable opportunity to share experiences and explore issues and problems that animate the work of describing and digitizing documents and manuscripts held in libraries. It was attended by researchers, practitioners and experts who presented national and international case studies, discussing achievements and challenges that need to be addressed in the effort to reconcile accurate scholarly descriptions with the availability of digital images and the operational difficulties that remain to be overcome.
International conference “In balia del tempo e dello spazio: libri in movimento nella prima età moderna”
The Research Unit of Catania, coordinated by Prof. Simona Inserra, contributes to the MeMo project through a systematic survey and detailed description of the incunabula preserved in the two collections of the Abbey of Montecassino — both the public and private holdings. The goal is to provide highly detailed records of each individual item, enriched by significant new findings recently acquired.
Some of these results were presented during the international conference In balia del tempo e dello spazio: libri in movimento nella prima età moderna, held in Catania last February. The event explored the complex journeys of books between the 15th and 17th centuries, tracing the movement of manuscripts, incunabula, and printed texts across regions, readers, and both religious and secular institutions. It offered a fascinating insight into textual mobility, bibliographic surveys, digitization processes, provenance research, and historical collections.
The conference gathered scholars from Italian and international universities and libraries — including Barcelona, Copenhagen, Rome, Bologna, Udine, and Munich — and served as a valuable occasion to reflect on the fate of early printed books and the evolving role of historic libraries, with particular focus on the Montecassino collection.