The Archive
The Archive
The archival material, which retraces the OPD’s historical and institutional development, is organically constituted in three historical Funds and in the Restoration and Photographic Funds. Completing the Institute’s catalogue, the current archive and the deposit archive are managed by the Document Management Services staff.
Historical Funds
The Preunitary fund, 1800 -1850, with records of 1746 and 1859, consisting of 26 files and 14 registers, is the oldest documentary nucleus remaining in place after being deposited at the State Archives of Florence at the end of the 19th century. Its size, 2.14 linear metres, bears witness to the role of the Opificio as an art workshop for the court. The records are supported by a summary list in paper form.
With documentation from 1859, the Post-Unification fund (1861-1974) have a size of 124.40 linear meters. The documents are representative of the Opificio’s activities in the production of commessi, Florentine mosaics, and the first series of restorations in the regional, national and international spheres. In addition to this type of documentation, the records also contain administrative material relating to personnel management and accounting. This information is presented in loose form and in the form of registers. Photographic documentation in analogue format is also part of the fund, with no accompanying media; its size is 5.00 linear meters. 835 analogue images have been digitally reproduced.
The most recent Fund concerns the creation of the modern-day Opificio. With the establishment of the Ministry for Cultural and Environmental Heritage in 1975, the Opificio merged with the Gabinetto dei Restauri of the Soprintendenza alle Gallerie and with the secondary laboratories that were set up after the flood of 1966.
The documentation produced since 1975 reflects the functions assigned to the Institute: restoration, research and training.
The historical documentation of the archival fund (1975–1992) amounting to 35.09 linear meters, is stored on the premises of the Archive and Protocol Office.
The Restoration and Photographic fund
The Restoration and Photographic fund consists of a documentary aggregate of considerable importance due to the quantity and quality of the material, concerning the Institute’s objectives, from the beginning of the 20th century to present. The oldest nucleus contains material from the Gabinetto dei Restauri (Restoration Department) and includes correspondence regarding the Gabinetto’s protective duties in Tuscany and the preparation of national events, as well as administrative and accounting documents. The fund also includes documentation produced by the Centro Nordico del Restauro, an entity established within the Gabinetto dei Restauri’s laboratories whose operations were recorded from 1967 to 1970.
The most substantial series are those of the wall paintings and, above all, the series of G.R. records (G.R: being acronym of Gabinetto dei Restauri). The latter starts from 1934 for the activity initiated by the Gabinetto dei Restauri and is the only series pertaining to this fund that carries on growing in parallel to the OPD’s restoration work. Completing its documentation, the analogue and digital photographic material is stored in the Photo Library Section.
Since 1992, with the application of the CDS-ISIS software, records and restoration reports have been digitized. The system has been replaced since 2012 by the ministerial program SICaR (Sistema Informativo per i Cantieri di Restauro), used until 2018.
The Restoration and Photographic fund has been reorganised and is currently being inventoried using the software ‘Archimista’.
Within PNRR – MIC3 – the Italian Ministry of Culture has launched a digitisation project of Restoration Archives. The documentation identified for the project is relevant to the Restoration series of the OPD’s Restoration and Photographic fund.
