The Minister of Culture is right Dario Franceschini when he talks about developing new technologies to enhance the Italian artistic heritage. In truth, the road is almost obligatory in order to make sites and galleries that need to grow on the web accessible even from a distance. We need to put some money into it, however, and identify paths and professionalism that know how to keep pace with the advance of technologies. For example, the Pharmacy of the Popes in the church of Santa Maria della Scala in Trastevere returns in 3D dimension. AND' the oldest apothecary in Europe, prevented for a long time from normal visits. Only small groups of people had access to them. Instead, it will be possible to admire it without going there, thanks to a project involving three universities.
An interdisciplinary team from Italy, Spain and Portugal has rebuilt the extremely attractive, very sustainable site with new technologies. Three o'clock Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Évora (Portugal) and Valencia (Spain) they used lasers, photograms and avant-garde instruments for non-destructive surveys on everything preserved in the heart of Rome. There where until the middle of the last century the Discalced Carmelite Friars collected and kept plants and medicines from all over the world. A special place where natural riches became beneficial substances - often saving - even if intended for the "elected". There is, therefore, a naturalistic present value at the basis of the three-dimensional reconstruction. Understanding the medicinal secrets scattered around the world collected and forfeited in a baroque jewel very dear to the Popes. The Popes mostly ignored the potions, recipes and medicinal substances kept in the nearby Apothecary useful to them and to the other cardinals. But they knew they had an excellent natural arsenal at their disposal. Witchcraft and alchemy were confined to other areas of the Church, they could never be exhibited.
At the basis of the work is the Roma Hispana project which in addition to public funds also had the support of the Aboca company. The technologies used areAeneas who granted them to the team to study the state of conservation of everything needed by the Vatican State. Herbariums, recipes, documents and some "mysteries" revealed in the modern dimension through submillimeter resolutions. In work si it also went beyond the pharmacological aspects, when the sales room and the precious archive were investigated from an architectural point of view. “The complete model - he says Roberta Fantoni, responsible for ENEA Technologies - will also have the objective of determining the state of conservation of the asset and planning any recovery interventions”. In practice, the digitization and virtualization of the apothecary to overcome even the architectural barriers of the space. Part scientists, part ghostbusters, the researchers have even set their sights on the poison room. “ Here about 100 samples were analyzed to understand if the contents of these vials corresponded to what was written on the labels and if alterations had occurred over time that could have led to a lower treatment capacity or an increase in the toxicity of these substances ", explains Catarina Pereira of the Laboratory Hercules of the University of Évora. A scientific and health scruple, one might say, for the posthumous benefit of the Popes. We'll realize it when everything is visible from the sofa at home.
