Imago Tusciae: A digital archive of historical maps of Tuscany (Italy)

Tarchi), is an online digital archive of the historic cartography of Tuscany. At present the archive comprises around 2,000 documents belonging to different fonds of the Siena State Archives, soon to be joined by the maps from the Grosseto State Archives. The objective is that of progressively gathering within the archive the cartographic documentation from the various registries in Tuscany (archives and both public and private libraries) as well as that concerning Tuscany but conserved elsewhere (in Italy and abroad). In addition to operating as a means for consulting the data and seeking information, the application also makes it possible to view the maps and other related documents in high resolution and offers a range of tools for study and reflection: informative factsheets on the documents, lists of authors with respective biographical details, bibliographic references, lists of archive fonds and atlases of maps complete with descriptions and an interactive chronology localised on the map of modern-day Tuscany. By exploiting the technical features of Web 2.0 (through tabbed browsing) and using a linear and intuitive interface architecture, the application seeks to offer a user experience as similar as possible to that of a scholar at a desk in an archive, with documents o