Update from Prof. Bent

September 14, 2020

We welcome our new team members to the group in September 2020. Ellie Penner (‘23) and Georgie Gaines (‘22) join Haochen Tu (‘23) and Elyssa McMaster (‘21) as we make our way through COVID infested waters this year. While we mourn the commencement of Alice Chambers and Win Gustin in May 2020, we’re excited to move forward with the project. A new scanner - Leica’s RTC 360 - has helped us model the massive Florentine Duomo of S. Maria del Fiore that Brunelleschi completed with his design of the double-shelled cupola, a structure often identified as the first modern architectural project in the west. That model has been posted in our map, and I hope you’ll take a look (including the early Christian sub-structure underneath that was once the cathedral of S. Reparata). We’ve also posted a model of the Palazzo Davanzati, a vastly remodeled fourteenth-century palazzo owned by the Davizzi family, and edited versions of S. Miniato, the Baptistery, the Hospital of the Innocenti, and nearly the entire complex of S. Croce. Our model of the Bargello is pretty close to being done, so check back again in a few weeks to see that one. Due to travel restrictions, however, a temporary moratorium on data collection has caused a pause in the scanning process - despite approvals to scan other structures in the city.

Our goal this semester is to embed into our pointcloud and photogrammetry models some of the essays, translations, and transcriptions we have compiled since 2017 for this project. We’re busy learning code, testing processes of uploading materials, and honing our programming skills, thanks to the patience and guidance of Mackenzie Brooks and Dave Pfaff. We’ll focus our attention on essays for S. Croce and Orsanmichele, but texts for the Bargello, Baptistery, and Bigallo have also been lined up for entry.

We hope you like what you see and that you’ll keep coming back for more. For now, a hearty welcome to Ellie and Georgie, and a loud shout-out to our alumni: Miles Bent, Sonia Brozak, Alice Chambers, Katherine Dau (now at Cambridge University after her Fulbright to Austria), Colby Gilley, M.C. Greenleaf, Erik Gustafson, Win Gustin, Sam Joseph, and Aidan Valente.