Manifestipolitici.itis a project promoted by the Fondazione Gramsci Emilia-Romagna.
It consists of a large online data bank launched in 2000 that offers more than 14.000 political and social posters coming from multiple collections dated from the early years of the Twentieth Century to the present day.
Posters can be consulted both through their pictures and their catalographic descriptions. They are available through a research tool which combines the conventional methods of bibliographic research (customer, illustrator, subject, event, iconographic subject, year, etc.) with the user-friendliness of the current search engines. The interface is easy to use, intuitive and interactive, and contents can be shared on social networks.
The catalogue offers a wide sample of national and international political and social communication on paper. It ranges from historical electoral propaganda posters to the ones inspired by the “creative freedom” of early 21st century movements, from communications of local institutions to Latin American and European posters. You can find works of leading Italian graphic designers as well as self-productions of youth movements.
Posters are considered an impressive means of communication for many reasons. Often, a quick and inattentive look is enough to communicate a highly complex message, which may contain a political proposal but also representations of complicated value systems. Posters are witness and protagonist of our history, they represent a stimulating source for research in many different fields: from history of graphics to history of the publishing industry, from history of political propaganda and communication to the history of customs and habits.
This is an open data bank, i.e. it is constantly growing. If you own posters and you are interested in participating in the project or in donating new iconographic-political-propaganda documentation to the Fondazione Gramsci Emilia-Romagna, please contact us.
How the project began
Manifestipolitici.it stems from the need to respond to the demand for consultation and use of iconographic sources for the study of the history of the twentieth-century and beyond and, at the same time, from the urgent need to safeguard fragile documentary material from deterioration.
The project started in June 2000 and became part of the communication and information initiatives of “Bologna 2000. Città europea della cultura” (Bologna 2000. European City of Culture).
On that occasion the Fondazione Gramsci Emilia-Romagna, which had more than 12.000 leaflets and political and social posters in its Archive, set up a network with other institutes of conservation that enabled to create the prototype of a first digital archive of 500 documents. In the following years the data bank has been constantly enriched with new Italian and foreign collections, and it gained international importance.
The data bank Manifestipolitici.it was born under the sign of innovation. Its biggest challenge was to enable the studying of posters, notices, announcements (made of fragile paper produced for a specific event, not made to last, not easily manageable and often difficult to find) through new technologies concerning digitization, cataloging and all the other phases of document processing. Furthermore, the Fondazione Gramsci Emilia-Romagna has always devoted attention to the study of political communication and propaganda and to the way politicians represent themselves.
Technical characteristics
High quality standards are met in the the preservation, digitalization and descriptive semantic cataloguing of documents.
Cataloguing
The reference standards for the descriptive part are: IFLA, ISBD (NBM), International Standard Bibliographic Description for Non-Book Materials, rev. ed., Italian edition by M. C. Barbagallo (Rome, AIB, 1989). Regarding the choice and the heading form: RICA, Regole italiane di catalogazione autori (Rome, ICCU, 1979); the name of the authors are in SBN format. Semantic cataloguing was carried out in conformity with the guidelines of the Soggettario per i cataloghi delle biblioteche italiane, a cura della Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze (Florence, 1956) and its subsequent updates.
Digitalization:
Direct scanning of documents. IT tools: scanner HP CC800PS model. Format TIFF resolution 200 DPI 1:1 used for the conservation; low-resolution compressed format JPG used for the consultation on the web (icon image and visualization image 800x600 pixel, resolution 72 DPI)
Software
Management and cataloguing programme: Sebina OpenLibrary e SebinaYOU, owned by Data Management e IBC, Regione Emilia-Romagna
Copyright
Many pictures of the catalogue are protected by a personalized digital watermark, for some collection the watermark is under development.