The Virtual Humanities Lab (VHL): Networked Resources for Early Modern Italian Studies

FAIN: EE-50022-04

Brown University (Providence, RI 02912-9100)
Massimo Riva (Project Director: October 2003 to March 2004)
Massimo Riva (Project Director: March 2004 to February 2007)

A materials development project to create an interactive website, the Virtual Humanities Lab to post and connect works by Boccaccio and Pico with other primary sources illuminating the civic and intellectual life of early modern Italy for teachers, students, and scholars.

We plan to develop a highly interactive web site where educators, scholars and students will find detailed information about the civic experience and the intellectual culture of Early Modern Italy, together with a variety of tools for collaborative teaching and research, organized as a multidisciplinary virtual laboratory.

Media Coverage

Presentazione del VHL (Review)
Author(s): Vika Zafrin
Publication: Storicamente
Date: 1/13/2012
Abstract: presentation of the VHL in Italian (based on a seminar held at Columbia University)
URL: http://www.storicamente.org/02_tecnostoria/filologia_digitale/zafrin-riva.html

Associated Products

The Decameron Web: Ten Years Later (Book Section)
Title: The Decameron Web: Ten Years Later
Author: Michael Papio
Author: Massimo Riva
Editor: Ian Lancashire
Abstract: 2009 marked the tenth anniversary since the inception of our online project, the Decameron Web, (www.brown.edu/decameron), a hypertextual web archive designed to promote the knowledge and teaching of a Medieval Italian classic, Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron. Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, with two grants in the Education and Technology programs (1999-2000 and 2002-03), the DW is now part of the Virtual Humanities Lab and is well established as a reliable online resource for teachers, students and general readers, interested in exploring this book in electronic form, in its original language and in translation. It features a modular encyclopedic apparatus, built collaboratively by scholars, teachers and students, and including a pedagogy module for the benefit of teachers and students alike. In this paper, after describing the original features and the various stages in the design, construction and development of this resource, the authors reflect upon the ten years of its existence: the challenges they have faced in building it and keeping it up to date; the response they have received from the academic community and the public at large; the feedback created by its use, inside and outside the classroom. They also focus on other theoretical issues for any project of this kind, which emphasizes the independent learning process and the "exploration" of a text within a body of materials designed to facilitate the students' own comprehension of the interrelation of literature and other areas of human endeavor. A section of this paper is focused on what worked well and what didn't over the first decade of the project's existence, including such issues as teacher participation and scholar collaboration, the evaluation process, issues of copyright and fair practices etc.
Year: 2009
Primary URL: http://www.mla.org/store/CID44/PID383
Publisher: Modern Language Association
Book Title: Teaching Literature and Language Online
ISBN: 9781603290579

Toward Experimental Scholarly Modes in the Humanities (Book Section)
Title: Toward Experimental Scholarly Modes in the Humanities
Author: Massimo Riva
Abstract: This paper presents the Virtual Humanities Lab as a potential platform for collaborative electronic editions and interactive digital library collections. It also introduces an exciting new project, then in its early stages, conceived in partnership with the Center for Digital Initiatives of the Brown Library, focused on one of the finest surviving examples of panoramic art: a mid-19th-century, 273-foot long, double-sided painting depicting the life story of Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi. (This is also a timely project, since 2007 is the bicentennial of Garibaldi’s birth - 1807). The Panorama was intended as a “moving” picture--audiences watched as illustrations of Garibaldi’s life were cranked before them in a special circular building (London Leicester Square’s popular Barker Panorama theatre). We are now reanimating this object on a digital platform: we will recreate a virtual simulation of this spectacle, allowing the user to “scroll” through the panorama and listen to a bilingual voiceover narrative based on the original narrative (also acquired by the Brown library) that we are in the process of transcribing and translating into Italian; we will also make the manuscript available, both images and transcription, on VHL for scholars interested in exploring the panorama as a unique historical source, in its connections to other contemporary popular media, such as biographies, novels, newspapers, etc.
Year: 2007
Primary URL: http://www.neh.gov/digitalhumanities/Conference_07Oct/DH_Conference.html
Publisher: National Endowment for the Humanities
Book Title: Using New Technologies to Explore Cultural Heritage

Reinventing the Past in a Participatory Culture (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Reinventing the Past in a Participatory Culture
Author: Massimo Riva
Abstract: Presentation of the VHL as a platform for collaborative work in historical studies
Date: 10-8-2008
Conference Name: TRAME/PRIN International Conference

The Uncertain Future of Tradition: Virtual Heritage and a Sustainable Past (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: The Uncertain Future of Tradition: Virtual Heritage and a Sustainable Past
Abstract: The advent of digital technologies opens unprecedented scenarios for a transformative transmission and dissemination of Italian culture. At a time when the survival of the humanist ‘tradition’ is in question, ‘virtual heritage’ aims to preserve the material past in a new dimension. Yet, a sustainable cultural past, a living cultural memory, depends on a continuous process of translation and adaptation - linguistic, cognitive and technological. Digital libraries, open archives, the whole architecture of the semantic web configure novel possibilities of accessing, and reinventing, the (Italian) humanist tradition. Presentation of the VHL as a platform for a creative transmission of Italian cultural artifacts.
Author: Massimo Riva
Date: 4-25-2008
Location: Society for Italian Studies
Primary URL: http://www.sis.ac.uk/cgi-bin/safeperl/sisinfo/sistine.pl

Digital Resources for Historical Research (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: Digital Resources for Historical Research
Author: Massimo Riva
Abstract: A presentation of the VHL and the Garibaldi & the Risorgimento project as a platform for collaborative research in the history of culture.
Date Range: 3-29-2010
Location: École Normale Superieure

Online Resources for Collaborative Research: the Pico Project at Brown University (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Online Resources for Collaborative Research: the Pico Project at Brown University
Author: Vika Zafrin
Author: Massimo Riva
Abstract: This paper reports on the achievements of VHL's work during the first two years of its existence, as a platform for collaborative research in the humanities Authors discuss two components of the editing process as they envision it (encoding and annotating): as a form of interdisciplinary and collaborative knowledge work. Namely, they discuss issues raising from their experiment with subjective (or “idiosyncratic”) text encoding; the challenges they face in organizing the work of an international group of collaborators and the procedures for their collaboration; the process of annotating and indexing large texts collaboratively; finally, they hint at the potential applications of VHL work for pedagogical purposes.
Date: 7-7-2006
Primary URL: http://allc-ach2006.colloques.paris-sorbonne.fr
Conference Name: DH06

Digital Resources for Italian Studies: the Virtual Humanities Lab (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Digital Resources for Italian Studies: the Virtual Humanities Lab
Author: Massimo Riva
Abstract: Presentation of the VHL as a platform for collaborative research in a round-table discussion
Date: 5-9-2009
Conference Name: American Association of Italian Studies Annual Conference

The Garibaldi Panorama: a lecture and performance (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: The Garibaldi Panorama: a lecture and performance
Abstract: A public presentation and performance featuring the Garibaldi Panorama, one of the leading projects of the Virtual Humanities Lab.
Author: Massimo Riva
Date: 6-15-2010
Location: Italian Cultural Institute, London

The Garibaldi Panorama on the Surface (Exhibition)
Title: The Garibaldi Panorama on the Surface
Curator: Andries van Dam
Curator: Massimo Riva
Abstract: Installation of the Garibaldi project (part pf VHL) on a touchscreen device, part of Growing Knowledge. The Evolution of Research, an exhibition at the British Library in London
Year: 2011
Primary URL: http://www.growingknowledge.bl.uk/

Garibaldi Panorama e la Sala del Risorgimento (Exhibition)
Title: Garibaldi Panorama e la Sala del Risorgimento
Curator: Alex Hills
Curator: Massimo Riva
Abstract: An installation of the Garibaldi Panorama on touchscreen devices in the prestigious Sala del Risorgimento of the Palazzo Pubblico, in Siena, Italy
Year: 2011
Secondary URL: http://www.beniculturalionline.it/?p=1649&option=com_wordpress&Itemid=1
Secondary URL Description: Italian Cultural Heritage ufficial blog

Storia da toccare: Garibaldi panorama a Salaborsa (Exhibition)
Title: Storia da toccare: Garibaldi panorama a Salaborsa
Curator: Massimo Riva
Abstract: An installation of the Garibaldi panorama on touchscreen in the atrium of the Salaborsa, public library and civic center, in Bologna Italy
Year: 2011
Primary URL: http://www.bibliotecasalaborsa.it/eventi/22910

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