The digitization of 15th and 16th century manuscripts from the Pontaniana Academy in Naples

The "MAGIC" project, financed by the Italian Government through MIMIT, began its activities in June 2023 to create a Service Centre for the treatment, conservation, and use of ancient texts and manuscripts, at the Department of Humanistic Studies and the Department of Physics “Ettore Pancini” of the University of Naples “Federico II”. After a prototype phase, the Centre is preparing to perform the study on a series of volumes from the Accademia Pontaniana, an ancient academy founded in Naples around 1443. This Academy owns numerous volumes, including 6 incunabula from the 1400s, 180 volumes from the 16th century, 150 from the 17th century and about 1000 very small volumes from the 18th century. The 15th and 16th century volumes will be digitized using planetary scanners and the files will be archived in various formats. Rich metadating will integrate the work. A Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy will also be carried out to provide structural information on the materials composing the manuscripts (paper, and inks, and gold). Through the interpretation of the collected IR spectrum it will be possible: i) the recognition of the materials present, through comparison with databases; ii) evaluate the yield and type of products formed at the end of a reaction. A website will present all the results to the public and experts, for the latter also in high resolution.