GLAM/Newsletter/November 2025/Contents/Italy report
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Wrap up of the 2025 GLAM call
Last March, Wikimedia Italia announced the ten selected projects for the 2025 GLAM call — an initiative run in collaboration with ICOM Italia and Creative Commons Italia to promote the online reuse of public domain images and open access content.
Today we’re happy to share an update on the progress of these projects: what has been achieved so far, which concrete results are now available on Wikimedia platforms, and how institutions across Italy are actively contributing to free knowledge.
- Associazione Astrofili Spezzini (AAS), La Spezia
The amateur astronomy association AAS has shared a growing collection of astrophotography taken at the “Luciano Zannoni” observatory on Monte Viseggi. These high-quality scientific images are now enriching Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata. More than 120 images have already been uploaded, with plans to release educational materials created from this content.
See all AAS images on Wikimedia Commons.
- Archivio Storico di Alatri
The Historical Archive of Alatri has digitised around 80 medieval and early modern parchments (1200–1700), including the monumental 300-page Statute of Alatri (1585–86), papal letters and other historical documents. All materials have been uploaded in high resolution, making a previously local documentary heritage openly available.
See all documents from the Alatri Historical Archive on Wikimedia Commons.
- Centro Studi Baresi (CSB), Bari
CSB, a long-standing centre dedicated to research on the dialect and traditions of Bari, has uploaded 17 dialect manuals and related publications: lyric poetry, folklore notes, children’s tales, popular literature and biographical texts on Apulian writers, as well as historical documents concerning the Basilica of Saint Nicholas.
Explore the CSB collection on Wikimedia Commons.
- Archivio Storico Rosignano Marittimo (LI)
- the Pietro Gori Collection
To mark the 160th anniversary of Pietro Gori’s birth (1865–1911), the Historical Archive of Rosignano Marittimo has digitised and released all 13 volumes of Criminalogia moderna, the influential criminology journal founded and directed by Gori in Buenos Aires (1898–1901).
Its editorial board included major figures of Argentine culture and numerous European collaborators such as Napoleone Colajanni, Cesare Lombroso and Antonio Labriola. This unique collection is now fully accessible online.
Read “Criminalogia moderna” on Wikimedia Commons.
- Museo Civico Alpino “Arnaldo Tazzetti”, Usseglio (TO)
The Tazzetti Alpine Museum has uploaded more than 500 high-resolution images documenting the flora and fauna of the Valli di Lanzo: a complete herbarium of local plants and an extensive butterfly collection representing nearly all diurnal Lepidoptera species of the valleys.
Many images are already in use on Wikidata items, increasing the visibility of this local biodiversity.
See all images from the Tazzetti Museum on Wikimedia Commons.
- Fondazione Teatro Regio di Torino
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The Teatro Regio di Torino has digitised, catalogued and released more than 2,000 images of stage designs and costume sketches for operas and ballets. These works — many created by living artists — are typically protected by copyright and rarely available under an open licence.
Thanks to the collaboration with Wikimedia Italia, this exceptional contemporary art collection (1969–2019) is now accessible on Wikimedia Commons, accompanied by a wiki-story video guiding viewers through the theatre’s archives.
Browse all Teatro Regio images on Wikimedia Commons.
- Biblioteca Centrale del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Rome
The CNR Central Library has completed a full digitalisation of the Atlas of isoseismal maps of Italian earthquakes, a cartographic collection previously available only on site and known only to specialists. The atlas covers earthquakes in Italy from the year 1000 to 1980.
Each map uploaded to Wikimedia Commons is accompanied by detailed metadata, allowing editors to use every single isoseismal map independently in Wikipedia articles and Wikidata items. The project makes 400 images available for reuse.
Additionally, the entire UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has been translated into Italian Sign Language (LIS), supporting accessibility and inclusion.
See all CNR materials on Wikimedia Commons.
- Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli
- the Libero Cavalli Archive
Marking the 80th anniversary of the Liberation, the Feltrinelli Foundation has digitised 75 archival documents related to the Italian and French Resistance. These include internal reports of the Matteotti Brigades, correspondence and minutes from the Libero Cavalli papers, donated to the Foundation.
This release offers a valuable contribution to the documentation of partisan history and democratic memory.
See all documents from the Libero Cavalli Archive on Wikimedia Commons.
- Museo di Anatomia Comparata “G.B. Grassi”, Sapienza University of Rome
The Museum of Comparative Anatomy has uploaded more than 130 educational wall charts produced between the late 19th and early 20th century. They illustrate anatomical and zoological subjects such as egg morphology, internal structures of fish, avian respiratory systems and comparative circulatory systems in vertebrates and invertebrates.
As part of the project, a webinar titled “Between science and art: the parietal charts of the Museum of Comparative Anatomy ‘G.B. Grassi’” was held in May 2025. All images are now on Wikimedia Commons and fully integrated into Wikidata.
See all images from the Grassi Museum on Wikimedia Commons.
- Museo di Storia Naturale dell’Università di Pisa
Following the 3D models of cetaceans released in last year’s MAB edition, the Natural History Museum of Pisa has uploaded more than 200 high-definition images of skeletons, fossils and a substantial underwater photography collection of fish species — including a set dedicated to northern Italian species, a relatively rare resource due to the technical difficulty of producing high-quality underwater images.
These visuals are already widely used in Wikimedia projects and offer an important contribution to documenting marine biodiversity.
See all images from the Natural History Museum of Pisa on Wikimedia Commons.
- Why this matters
Across small local organisations and large academic institutions, the 2025 MAB projects show how sharing digital collections under open licences can make Italian cultural heritage more visible, reusable and accessible — strengthening the ecosystem of free knowledge for everyone.
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