The Grande Galleria. From text to graph, to digital model

Abstract

This contribution focuses on the Grande Galleria of Carlo Emanuele I of Savoy inaugurated in 1608: a connecting building located at the time between the ducal residence and the Castle of Turin. Inside it housed the Ducal Library along with collections of objects of various kinds, all framed by naturalistic and symbolic architectural and decorative apparatus. These components are now destroyed or dispersed, while the sources for their study refer to individual aspects of the Galleria. It was therefore decided to carry out a graphic experiment to understand how the form of information acts on the epistemological models by which we know the Grande Galleria. The aim of the experiment is to represent the networks of relationships among the bibliographic units that were contained in the library’s shelves, starting from Foucault’s idea that books are embedded in systems of relationships and cross-references. The attempt is to elaborate a digital space for displaying information that can make visible networks of relationships that link the objects of the Grande Galleria.