Thursday 23 January 2025, at 5:00 pm, in the reception room of the Carifano Foundation, in via Montevecchio 114 - Fano, in the presence of the Mayor of Fano and the President of the Carifano Foundation, the project for the Digitization of the Malatesta Codes (1367-1463) will be presented.
A precious source for the study of the medieval history of Fano and the Malatesta lordship over Fano, Brescia and Bergamo, the Malatesta registers are kept in the State Archives Section of Fano, in the fund of the Ancient Municipal Archives.
Their importance is known to scholars, who have obtained important information about city life, trade, court customs, clothing and the art of war from their reading. The studies of Professor Anna Falcioni for the lordship of Fano, and of Dr. Giorgetta Bonfiglio Dosio for the lordship of the Malatesta over Brescia are well-known.
The Malatesta Codes are 113 registers and a miscellaneous envelope, mainly of accounting content, which were part of the lost court archive, in particular that of Pandolfo III Malatesti (1370-1427) and his successor Sigismondo Pandolfo (1417-1468); only two registers refer to the domination of Galeotto I (ca. 1300-1385).
The State Archives of Pesaro Urbino - Fano Section has promoted, in collaboration with the Central Institute for Archives, the digitization of this precious documentary heritage, continuing and systematizing activities already undertaken previously.
The images and the related archival descriptions are now freely available on the Digital Archive Portal of the Central Institute for Archives.
The director of the State Archives, Sara Cambrini, and the archivists who took part in the project, Arianna Zaffini and Matteo Sisti, will illustrate the genesis of the project, its phases, the personnel involved in the project itself, among which we must remember the role played by the restorer of the State Archives of Pesaro Urbino, Maria Rosaria Paternò. Some images of the digitized Malatesta Codes, created by the Space company of Prato, will be shown to the public.
Michele Tagliabracci, Librarian of the Fano Library system, will illustrate the other digitization projects underway by the Federiciana Library of Fano and their prospects.
The meeting will conclude with a speech by Prof. Anna Falcioni, professor at the University of Urbino and president of the International Center for Malatesta Studies, dedicated to the importance of the Malatesta Codes as a source for the study of late medieval history.
The event is organized in collaboration with the International Center for Malatesta Studies of Fano and the Carifano Foundation, and is sponsored by the Municipality of Fano - Department of Culture and Cultural Heritage and ANAI - National Association of Italian Archivists.
