DIGITAL DISCI. The Online Portal of the Italian Cartographers

The co-financed (COFIN) national project Studies and Research for a Historical Dictionary of the Italian Cartographers coordinated by Ilaria Luzzana Caraci of the University of Roma Tre, was founded in 2003 and structured in fourteen local research units across Italy. An ambitious work program more than hundred participants to produce extensive research on all Italian characters (or on people who have been working for a long time in the country) who had been involved in the production of geographical maps. This would have achieved an idea born a few years earlier to intercept the research needs felt by many, and aimed to fill a knowledge gap mainly for the “minor” characters who had received less attention from scientists, but seemed to be fundamental to rebuild a fuller and more definite picture of the history of the Italian cartography, but not only. The great amount of material has long been waiting to find a publisher. In addition to a large series of publications of the individual local units (more than 60 books, collective volumes, essays, articles, etc.), the great amount of material has long been waiting to find a publisher. Today we want to show the portal designed by lecturers of the University of Roma Tre, in collaboration with the Italian Center for Historical-Geographical Studies (CISGE), to make available the results of the DISCI project (www.cisge.it/disci). A digital open source collection, open to the consultation of bio-bibliographic records previously produced and also to the contribution of those who want to provide new information on one of the almost 1.000 already fully censed characters. Alternatively, users can create a new record for one of the almost 6.000 Italian cartographers known only by name and/or with limited data.