The Post-I_IT project (Post Incunaboli_ITaliani): first results of a survey

Abstract

The Post-I_IT (Post-Incunaboli ITaliani) project is the result of the collaboration between Fondazione Scuola per i beni e le Attività culturali and ICCU (the Central Institute for the Union Catalogue of Italian Libraries and Bibliographic Information). It led to an update of the data stored in two fundamental databases dedicated to early printed books: the National census of sixteenth-century Italian editions (EDIT16) and the Incunabula Short-Title Catalogue (ISTC). The project focused on the identification of the Italian post-incunabula 'erroneously' recorded in one of the most important Fourteenth-Century book depositories, in order to integrate information relating to specific editions and items preserved in libraries all over the world.
In addition to emphasizing the terminological issues, this paper intends to analyse some substantial differences relating to the descriptive methodology of the two databases, especially in the light of the recent update which enhanced EDIT16.
The information which the project contributed to integrate includes: works of uncertain authorship, controversial attributions of typoghrapher or publisher, uncertain dates and places of publication, the location of previously non-registered specimens and the retrieval and linking of digitized specimens via hyperlink.
Like other projects, it was possible to demonstrate that the interaction between databases can stimulate further reflections and considerations regarding the nodal information service of bibliographic repositories, and foster identification surveys beyond national borders.