{"id":6318,"date":"2025-12-22T17:32:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T16:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modenafuturacreativa.it\/?p=6318"},"modified":"2025-12-22T17:32:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T16:32:21","slug":"le-nuove-carte-su-mary-of-modena-sono-ora-accessibili-allarchivio-storico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modenafuturacreativa.it\/en\/le-nuove-carte-su-mary-of-modena-sono-ora-accessibili-allarchivio-storico\/","title":{"rendered":"New papers on Mary of Modena are now accessible at the Historical Archives"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Valuable evidence of Queen Maria Beatrice d'Este's escape from England in 1688 has been catalogued, digitised and can now be consulted<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Historical Archive of the Municipality of Modena presents an important intervention of cataloguing, digitisation and valorisation of a documentary nucleus of extraordinary historical value dedicated to Maria Beatrice d'Este, Queen of England in exile, known as Mary of Modena. The papers, recently acquired thanks to a grant from the Emilia-Romagna Region, are now described, restored, digitised and made freely available online through open access platforms, significantly expanding the possibilities of study, research and public use.<\/p>\n

The collection of documents was presented this morning at the headquarters of the Municipal Historical Archive, on the first floor of the Palazzo dei Musei, in the presence of the Councillor for Culture of the Municipality of Modena Andrea Bortolamasi, the director of the Libraries and Archives Area of the Emilia-Romagna Region Claudio Leombroni, and the director of the Libraries and Historical Archive of Modena Debora Dameri.<\/p>\n

\"These documents,\" explained Councillor Bortolamasi, \"significantly enrich the heritage of our Municipal Archives, thanks to the fruitful cooperation with the Region. The Administration's commitment to protecting and enhancing the city's archival heritage thus continues. The Historical Archive confirms itself as a fundamental cultural garrison for the community, in which we will continue to invest with conviction'.<\/p>\n

As foreseen in the agreement signed with the Region, during 2025 the municipal administration took on the costs for scientific cataloguing, digitisation and enhancement of the documentation. The cataloguing process, entrusted to Open Group, a company that manages library services for the Municipality of Modena, was carried out by Silvia Perucchetti, a musicologist and librarian expert in the description of manuscripts, ancient books and special collections. The reports and letters are now described on Manus, the database of the Central Institute for the Single Catalogue dedicated to manuscripts, while the print with the engraved portrait of James II Stuart is catalogued in Index and can be consulted through the Opac of the National Library Service.<\/p>\n

For the delicate conservation stabilisation and digitisation work, the Historical Archive made use of the expertise of Mida Digit srl of the Panini Group, which operates with state-of-the-art equipment designed for the high-resolution reproduction of rare and fragile materials. The conservative interventions, supervised by restorer Gaia Petrella, were aimed at guaranteeing the security of the documents and their suitability for digital reproduction, in full respect of the historical integrity of the materials. The digital acquisition campaign was carried out with a scanner developed by the Panini Group, capable of ensuring very high standards in terms of both quality and conservation.<\/p>\n

Once the indexing and description process of the digital contents was completed, the digital resources were published on the open access platform Lodovico Media Library, developed by the Interdepartmental Research Centre on Digital Humanities of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (DHMoRe). The digitisations are directly linked to the catalogue descriptions on Manus and SBN, allowing an immediate cross-access between images and descriptive data.<\/p>\n

At the centre of the collection is the autograph account of Francesco Riva, a Bolognese painter from Guercino's workshop and personal cloakroom attendant of Maria Beatrice d'Este, as well as the creator and material executor of the escape of the queen and the newborn Prince of Wales during the 'Glorious Revolution'. Written in August 1689 and addressed to family members 'for future reference', the manuscript describes with narrative intensity the secret meetings, the organisation and night-time departure through the private garden of the royal palace, the crossing of the Thames, the journey to Dover and the landing on the French coast. A direct testimony hitherto only known through copies kept in other archives.<\/p>\n

The collection also includes two autograph letters from Queen Marie Beatrice, a pass signed by Louis XIV with an embossed seal, which allowed Francesco Riva and his sons to return to Italy in 1703, and a wealth of correspondence documenting the continuity of the relationship between the Riva family and the Stuart court until the mid-18th century. The nucleus is completed by a genealogical sketch of the Riva family, an oil on copper miniature with a female portrait that can be traced, from comparative research, to the Queen, and an engraved portrait of James II Stuart.<\/p>\n

The acquisition, financed entirely by the Region with a contribution of 25,000 euros, not only enriched the heritage of the Municipal Historical Archive, but also safeguarded the integrity of a unique documentary set, preserving it from possible future dispersion and ensuring its full use by scholars, researchers and citizens.<\/p>\n

The evocative power of these papers has already found its first public return in the educational and creative sphere. Last Sunday, 14 December, the Historical Archive proposed the puppet show 'The Escape of Mary of Modena', curated by Simona Gollini, as part of the review 'The Archive is Me'. An experience that confirms the role of the Archive as a living place of narration, knowledge and participation, with the hypothesis of a new repetition in 2026 on the occasion of \"Quante storie nella Storia. The Week of Didactics in the Archives\" promoted by the Emilia-Romagna Region.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\t

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