| 1032173 | HISTORY OF MINIATURE [L-ART/01] [ITA] | 2nd | 1st | 6 |
Educational objectives The course aims to provide students with a knowledge of the main developments of the history of book illumination in the West during the Middle Ages. It intends to offer an overview of illumination from paleochristian to gothic art, with special focus on style and iconography, on the context and on the techniques of production. Students will be introduced to methods to correctly understand the interconnection between patronage and the function of illuminated books. Among the forseen outcomes are the acquisition of the periodization used in this field and of the different types of illuminated books and their distinctive features.
During the course students will acquire the ability to recognize illuminated manuscripts pertaining to the contexts considered in the module, to identify the main types of illuminated books and to analyze illumination using the specific terminology. This expected outcome will be the consequence of the interaction between the knowledge taught during the course and the further reading suggestions which will be provided in class.
During the classes and the study visits time will be dedicated to seminarial activities, during which the students will be encouraged to actively take part and excercise in commenting and interpreting the analyzed images.
During the course suggestions for further reading will be systematically provided to enable students to gain an autonomous in-depth knowledge of the issues discussed during classes.
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| 1047955 | HISTORY AND FUNCTIONS OF DIPLOMATIC DOCUMENT [M-STO/09] [ITA] | 2nd | 1st | 6 |
Educational objectives The course aims to provide students an advanced understanding and a more comprehensive and detailed knowledge on the subject of diplomatic record in Late antiquity and Middle age, with the necessary tools to interpret them in a critical view. During interactive lessons, students will acquire the ability to recognize the diplomatic forms, legal functions and value of the record in relation to the legal system of the production time. By the end of the course, they will be able to analyze in a critical way each type of diplomatic record, regardless of the historical and legal context in which it was produced.
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| 1041860 | BIBLIOLOGY [M-STO/08] [ITA] | 2nd | 2nd | 6 |
Educational objectives The course aims to illustrate the production and structure of the typographic printing book as well as its evolution from the origins to the twentieth century. At the end of the course, the student will be able to critically evaluete each type of typographic book and to describe it according to the standards of the analytical bibliography.
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| 1022509 | DOCUMENTATION [M-STO/08] [ITA] | 2nd | 2nd | 6 |
Educational objectives The course is a structured discussion of the issues and problems which are specific to the discipline of Documentation, internationally known as Information Theory or Digital Humanities. A special focus, both theorical and practical, will be dedicated to illustrating functions and policies of databases. Moreover, considering the history of Information Retrieval (since the Sixties) will give the opportunity to stress on the role of database as authoritative sources for the scholarly communication.
Books and articles of the pioneers of computer Science will also be read and analyzed. In fact, the “literary corpus” of Informatics must be revealed in all its cultural aspects.
First aim: Cultural history of information technology and communications (ITC). Comparison with other near disciplinary fields related to traditional institutions such as archives and libraries. (historical and critical approach)
Second aim: improving Information literacy. Digital libraries will be considered as the main focus of study, both in the perspective of a “general user” and, further on, to give the students the best potentiality for seeking a job in the area of digital curator or advanced librarian.
Third aim: enhance autonomous and critical capacities. Methodological approaches offered during the course: Structutralism, Cultural Studies, Comparative Studies.
Further expected results: an autonomous approach to the field of Digital libraries and digital heritage.
Google’s algorithm PageRank will be a case study particularly important. The success of Google both as a “narration” and as a “market strategy”, as well as a user-friendly and extremely efficient tool of retrieval, will give the opportunity of considering the disciplinary field of Documentation/Information Theory at every levels: from the practical-technical aspects to the professional ones. A second case study will be ACO the algorithm well known for the use in Amazon (“suggestions” for other books to buy). Starting from technical aspects of the algorithm itself, the students will be invited to consider cultural effects, mainly related to the risk of a monopolistic use of the book market.
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| 1031469 | CODICOLOGY [M-STO/09] [ITA] | 2nd | 2nd | 6 |
Educational objectives The course aims to provide students the essential lines of discipline in its articulation of ‘stricto sensu’ codicology and ‘lato sensu’ codicology in order to provide them the necessary tools for the study of the medieval manuscript as a material object and for its external and internal description. During interactive lessons, students will know how to recognize writing surfaces and writing tools according to their material characteristics; they will know how a quire and a manuscript book in its complexity are made; they will be able to draw up a catalogue data-sheet of a medieval manuscript.
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| 10596170 | Digital preservation [M-STO/08] [ITA] | 2nd | 2nd | 6 |
Educational objectives The course aims at developing the cognitive and methodological tools needed to deal with digital preservation.
Knowledge and understanding
The course provides the core knowledge on digital preservation. In particular, the course provides the knowledge on the principles, methods and tools needed for managing preservation in a digital environment coherently with standards and regulations. The course focuses on both the technical aspects (such as encoding, formats and media) and the theoretical/methodological profiles (including the digital objects' nature and the meaning of authenticity in the digital environment). The topics are investigated and illustrated not only in light of the principles and methods developed by the professional and scientific community, but also considering the relevant laws and standards, so as to develop the ability to understand the documentary phenomenon being aware of the relationships among the digital objects, the agents that operate on them during their lifecycle and the broad legislative and regulatory framework.
Applying knowledge and understanding
The course provides the ability to apply the knowledge needed to manage digital preservation of records and – more broadly – any digital resource. In particular, the detailed analysis of the relevant laws and standards is aimed at promoting the capacity for operational intervention in a real, practical context—the cultural heritage domain in the first place, and any other public or private domain in the second place, because digital preservation is needed in every sector of our societies. Based on the knowledge learned during the course, students will be able to:
• analyze the functional profile of a digital preservation system
• evaluate the consistency of a digital preservation system with the legislative and regulatory framework
• participate actively in digital preservation activities
• understand any future evolution of the regulatory framework and the digital preservation models developed by the Italian legislator
• understand any future evolution of the digital preservation models developed in an international context.
Making judgments
The course allows students to develop their own independent judgment in relation to digital preservation thanks to the direct comparison with the instructor and possibly with experts in the digital preservation area. The critical reading, analysis and discussion of diverse sources – including scientific literature, legislation and international standards – is aimed at encouraging students to deal with complexity and promoting the formation of autonomous judgments even if – and especially when – the evaluation elements are varied and inconsistent. Based on the knowledge learned during the course, students will be able to:
• identify the critical issues of a digital preservation system and/or strategy
• formulate their own assessment on specific aspects of a digital preservation system and/or strategy
• compare real cases with the national and international theoretical models.
Communication skills
The development of communication skills is stimulated through classroom discussion and possibly through participation in seminars, in order to stimulate students' ability to communicate effectively and deal with the dialectical confrontation with confidence.
Learning skills
The course promotes the development of self-learning skills by using various documentary sources (manuals, national legislation, technical standards, guidelines, formal models, etc.), both in Italian and in English, hence stimulating the students' capacity to adapt to diverse cultural contexts. The study of the fundamental concepts related to digital preservation and the attention to the methodological aspect allow the student to face with confidence a subsequent study of the subject in post-master courses.
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| 1022460 | BIBLIOGRAPHY [M-STO/08] [ITA] | 2nd | 2nd | 6 |
Educational objectives The course aims to provide the essential concepts relating to the history of bibliography as a discipline, the compilation and use of bibliographic repertoires and its applications in historical perspective and in the contemporary age. The student will be able to know the disciplinary development of the Bibliography and the protagonists of this story, will be able to navigate the main bibliographic tools, will know the descriptive models of the printed book and the elements present in the bibliographic descriptions, will equip himself with tools to prepare a bibliography reference for their studies.
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| 1041856 | ARCHIVISTICS FOR SPECIAL PURPOSES [M-STO/08] [ITA] | 2nd | 2nd | 6 |
Educational objectives The student, at the end of the course, will have a general knowledge of all the types of archives and will acquire the mastery of the various producers and of the different degrees of description. To achieve these objectives will be joined to the lectures also exercises and workshops specifically set up in order to enhance and promote the interests of the student (from archives containing ancient documentation to contemporary ones). During the lectures will be constantly monitored the level of interest and learning so that students can be called to intervene on the topics covered. At the end of the course the student, thanks also to the laboratory activities, will become aware of the main operations that can be carried out within the various archives.
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| 10611825 | History of the age of large archives [M-STO/02] [ITA] | 2nd | 2nd | 6 |
Educational objectives The course aims to train the professionalism of young archivists and librarians by providing them with specialized knowledge of the political and cultural conditions that led to the formation of state and ecclesiastical archives between the late Middle Ages and the early modern age. While pointing out the existence of other types of archiving of a corporate or family nature, the course presents the political history of large modern archives in the intertwining of writing practices of chancellors and secretaries and exercise of power over the territory. Particular attention will also be paid to the role of the archive in modern historiography.
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| 10611927 | History of European relations [SPS/06] [ITA] | 2nd | 1st | 6 |
Educational objectives The main aim of the course is to provide students with adequate knowledge of the historical process that led to the establishment of international and European institutions. A longue durée approach will be adopted to analyze the cultural categories and concepts that mostly influenced the birth and shaping of contemporary international society. In particular, the course will focus on the turn from the old multinational empires to the following development of national states and the definition of a new international context, based on the institutionalization of cooperation through organizations such as the League of Nations, the United Nations and the European Union. Special attention will be devoted to some specific humanitarian aspects (minority rights, refugees, human rights, international law).
The students will be driven through a program aimed to encourage personal contributions and a specific work on documentary sources, which will be illustrated (even through the consultation of digital archives) and used by the students themselves for their personal research. Students will thus be asked to prove their knowledge of the issues analyzed during the course and to show a sufficient level of maturity to reflect and elaborate on these concepts.
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| 10611915 | Physics for books and documents [FIS/01] [ITA] | 2nd | 1st | 6 |
Educational objectives The main objective of the course is to provide knowledge and skills on research methods and analytical techniques in the field of physical sciences applied to the study of archival and book heritage. Specifically, the main imaging and spectroscopic techniques used for the investigation of the constituent materials and manufacturing techniques of ancient manuscripts and printed books will be treated, as well as the physical principles underlying their functioning. The knowledge of the topics will be acquired through lectures, reading of scientific articles, analysis of case studies. At the end of the course, students will acquire necessary tools for: draw up an investigation project, identifying the appropriate analytical methodologies, with particular reference to the non-invasive and in situ usable techniques; critically analyse the instrumental data, also in the light of knowledges acquired in other classes of the degree course.
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| 10600255 | Preserving and promoting Historical Archival Heritage [M-STO/08] [ITA] | 2nd | 2nd | 6 |
Educational objectives The course aims at developing students' awareness of the main theoretical and methodological issues in the preservation and promotion of the historical archival heritage. It is also intended to provide knowledge on the creation and preservation processes of historical archives, and to how the concept of promotion of such archives is evolving. Reference will be made, as well, to the specific needs deriving from the increasingly widespread use of information technologies, and of the Internet as the first access point to archival records of historical interest. Students will develop, through the attendance of lectures and the writing of papers, the critical and practical skills necessary to approach issues related to the preservation and promotion of historical archival heritage from the point of view of international debate, in comparative perspective with related disciplines, and of challenges posed by evolving technologies.
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| 10596067 | history of the printed book [M-STO/08] [ITA] | 2nd | 2nd | 6 |
Educational objectives The aim of the course is to provide a historical analysis of the printed book, starting from the first oriental proofs of the use of movable typefaces and from Gutenberg's invention to the birth of modern publishing. The printed book, and its versatile identity as a communication medium, is studied in relation to the social, economic and cultural context of its production and is related to the entrepreneurial organization of printing centers and production systems of the early modern age.
Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:
- illustrate the historical development of the printed book;
- frame the history of the printed book in relation to its social and cultural context;
- know how to critically analyze the economic phases of its production in relation to the book trade, promotional policies and collecting;
- know how to evaluate the relationship between the history of ideas and the book as a medium for the transmission of knowledge.
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| 1022580 | HISTORY OF LIBRARIES [M-STO/08] [ITA] | 2nd | 1st | 6 |
Educational objectives Introduction to the general history of libraries and methodological problems. Analysis of special problems and topics of contemporary library history with reference to primary sources (public and private sources, textual and non-textual sources).
At the end of the course the student:
A) will know the evolution of libraries, especially in the contemporary age and with special attention to Italian libraries,
B) will be able to discuss the main issues of library policy and organization considered in the course,
C) will be able to compare and evaluate actions and solutions taken into consideration during the course,
D) will be able to correctly communicate his knowledge and reflections on the topics considered,
E) will develop the ability to learn from texts, to know the different types of sources and to examine and interpret the sources used.
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| 1022546 | THEORY AND HISTORY OF CATALOGUING AND CLASSIFICATION [M-STO/08] [ITA] | 2nd | 1st | 6 |
Educational objectives Introduction to contemporary cataloguing theory and presentation of the new Italian cataloguing code (REICAT), including problems of practical application in online systems. In the last part of the course, elements of indexing theory and introduction to the most-used subject indexing and classification systems.
At the end of the course the student:
A) will know the principles of cataloguing, the main cataloguing systems and the rules in use in Italian libraries,
B) will be able to apply the acquired knowledge to complete a catalogue record and discuss the choices made,
C) will be able to compare and evaluate alternative cataloguing solutions to choose the most appropriate one,
D) will be able to correctly communicate the process followed and the reasons for the choices made,
E) will develop the ability to learn from standards and rules and from the comparison among the solutions adopted by different libraries.
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