Memoria ecclesiae. A project of web-mapping for the census of tuscan religious institutions

Abstract

The aim of the project is the in progress realization of a digital archive of the documentation produced by the Tuscan religious institutions from the Middle Ages till today, to which access is through a cartographic-type interface.
The work group of Memoria Ecclesiae, Centro di Studi e Documentazione sulla Storia Religiosa della Toscana [Center for Study and Documentation of the Religious History of], has produced a database relevant to the religious bodies historically present in the region, following the plans already evidenced in the project I Luoghi della Fede.
The need to manage, integrate and analyze such enormous and multiform dimensions of data has lead to the project of a GIS. The geo-referencing of the single monuments and the predisposition of an articulated database of attributes has permitted the beginning of spatial analysis procedures (distribution, buffering, overlay, crossing). It was possible, for example, to analyze the distribution of sites in relation to the road network, the territorial morphology, the hydrography and the historical series of land use for some sample areas.
In the second part of the project, of which the first results are presented here, the realization of a system for online consulting of the data archives (census of Tuscan sanctuaries, parish churches, etc.) and of the thematic cartography produced has been planned.