This article investigates the contribution that digital systems offer to the valorization of historical centers. Following an approach that places the culture of restoration in the perspective of conservative management, the Risk Map is presented. A methodological approach inherited from the studies on historical buildings, on the structural behavior of masonry and traditional building components. With these premises, the structure of the cataloguing models and the codification of the lexicon for the description of historical centers and their material components are deepened.

The research project funded by University “Roma 3µ is aimed at realizing a Dynamic and Interactive Atlas of Rome and has three main goals: the knowledge of the historical and environmental heritage, the prevention of the seismic risk and the enhancement of the historical city in all its significance components. For this purpose, the systematization of archives material, the recognition of generative processes of historical landscapes and the use of modern technologies are assumed as an active resource for the education to heritage and digital culture as well as an advanced reference for territorial governance.

The methodology of the Dynamic Atlas marks a mutation in the historiographical praxis. In fact, this tool experiments with a relational approach between the archival documentary data of the Descriptio Romae WebGis, with the procedural data of critical synthesis, as in the survey on the “welcome centers"

This essay presents research activity leading to philological recomposition of some portion of the historical center of Rome that, following the unification of Italy, have been significantly transformed. It reports the procedures of analysis and interpretation of the sources finalized at the knowledge of the historical urban fabric and the subsequent methods for the urban reconfiguration. The criteria for the realization of physical and virtual models of the historical building fabric useful for the communication of the results of the search are exposed.

This work focuses on the predictive character in the field of environmental safety of the Dynamic Atlas of Rome, and on the historical seismicity of the city. A tool based on the knowledge of the constructive implications induced by the historical building and urban process.

Geo-referenced data are increasingly used in land management and planning. The Dynamic Atlas and the regional geotopographic database can generate synergies between historical sources and geographical data and give substance to semantic interoperability through the query = thought paradigm.

In accordance with the objectives of the recent Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the Atlas uses digital resources to compose dynamic cognitive scenarios, audience development based, to be offered to an extended and heterogeneous audience. The part of territory so far analyzed can be considered linked to two main river courses, the Tiber and the Aniene, and realizes a proposal of widespread musealization of the territory in which the archaeological remains and the villas of Tivoli, the coastal poles of Ostia and Portus and some significant areas of central Rome become connected to each other.

The proposed study of Tivoli’s countryside and its historic center analyzes the environmental contexts and infrastructural systems that have structured the city, in relation to its proximity to Rome, carrying out a survey of its monumental and landscape sites and of the constructive lexicon of its architecture.

This work presents the survey conducted on the south-western suburb of Rome. Particular attention is paid to the archaeological sites of Ostia and Portus, analyzing the evolution of the territory and highlighting the relationships between morphology, historical and cultural events, and settlement types.

Due to the continuous evolution of the ancient substrate, the Campus Martius seems a particularly fruitful context for the application of the combined research methods of the Atlas. Systematizing archeological finds, topographic and documentary knowledge, morphological singularities and local permutations connected with the main historical complexes, it has been possible to reconstruct lost urban ranges, such as the block currently occupied by the church of S. Maria in Vallicella and the Roman Oratory. That means the proposal of an innovative method in order to give value to the whole city.

The Forum of Caesar and the Templum Pacis, both examined in the urban context of Rome, have been redesigned philologically in their no more perceptible forms. In the frame of the critical comparison with the vitruvian theories, combining the analysis of archaeological findings with the architectural signs contained in some ruins allowed defining a rich and eloquent collection of ancient architecture, complete with typological, structural and technological solutions. The fundamental role of the imperial complexes as main points of the virtual conception of an urban museum itinerary has been also confirmed.

In 2019 the Roman antiques market has yielded a new copy of the Pietà painted by Michelangelo for Vittoria Colonna and given as a present to the British cardinal Reginaldo Polo. Such new copy perfectly corresponds to the original painting, as has been proved by reflectographic and radiographic analysis which revealed the use of the same cartone for both specimens. This paper will explore the relation between the new copy of the original painting, and the first copy also emerged from a roman private collection in 2012. Moreover, a series of pertinent documents from the Italian archives will be presented. This double approach will allow to retrace the history of the examined iconographic composition, proving how it represented almost a reliquia within the restricted group identified by the inquisition as the “spiritualiµ. Such name identifies a group of innovative intellectuals involved with the interpretation of the Lutheran theology, among which are included Vittoria Colonna, Reginaldo Polo, Michelangelo himself and other important intellectuals of the time who attempted a recomposition with Luther’s theology in the mid-sixteenth century.

The essay deals with the personal relationship between Aby Warburg and architecture. Apart from classical and Renaissance architecture, the architectures that most influenced him were those in which he lived and frequented, such as his brother’s villa. Warburg’s Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek, however, is the one in which he invested the most. In Warburg’s intentions, the building was to become a point of reference for art history scholars at the newly founded University of Hamburg, as well as the experimental laboratory to put the new methodological approach he had developed into practice. The composition of the space reflects this same working method and is the result of a collaboration between Fritz Schumacher and Warburg, who supervised the project in every detail. From 1925 the responsibility for the construction officially passed to Gerhard Langmaack who, mediating every decision with the client, realised further changes to the design and constructed the building. The heart of the library, the elliptical reading and seminar room, reflects Warburg’s Weltanschauung.

The article proposes a strategy for the digitzing the design process of interventions of restoration, refurbishment and generally speaking any work on existing building stock. This field is normally identified by the definition of H-BIM (Heritage-Building Information Modeling): a research that was founded on the idea of 3D Modeling the typical architectural elements of classical language (entablature, columns, decorations and so on) starting from a raw digitized source (either 3D scan or photogrammetry). This implies moving from the scanned data to a object oriented model, through shape recognition and generation of a taxonomy and related semantic structure. This article challenges this approach of a single converted Bim model by introducing the concept of a “palympsestµ model (resident over the web), where segmentation in objects does not erase scanned data, and different levels of detail can co-exist. Two completed experiences of restoration works in Rome are presented as field research to test this strategy.

By using the Z-Met technique, this research aims to investigate the role played by familiarity with information technology in the comprehension and evaluation of the exhibition Time is out of Joint at GNAM in Rome, set up according to the logic of hypertext. Possible scenarios are proposed for the future of exhibition as medium.