Mission

Mission

The Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History promotes scientific research in the field of Italian and global history of art and architecture. Established as a private foundation by Henriette Hertz (1846–1913), it was inaugurated in 1913 as a research center of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft. Today, the Bibliotheca Hertziana is part of the Human Sciences Section of the Max Planck Society and is considered one of the world's most renowned research institutes for art history.

Cities and Spaces in Premodernity

Cities and Spaces in Premodernity

The research of the department Michalsky revolves around questions concerning historical concepts of space and their transformation in premodernity. One geographical area of special interest in this context is Southern Italy, specifically Naples and the Mediterranean region.

Art of the Modern Age in a Global Context

Art of the Modern Age in a Global Context

The research focus of the department Weddigen lies in the global ramifications of Italian art from the early modern period to modernism, in the expansion of the Bibliotheca Hertziana's research activities toward modern and contemporary art, in questions of materiality and mediality, in the intellectual history of the discipline of art history and in digital art history.

Visualizing Science in Media Revolutions

Visualizing Science in Media Revolutions

The research group examines how new developments of communication (like the printing press) and observation (like new optical instruments) in the late middle ages and early modern time period interacted with each other and how they thereby created a new culture of visualizing science.
 

Decay, Loss, and Conservation in Art History

Decay, Loss, and Conservation in Art History

For centuries, Western artworks have been cared for in the hope of preserving them for as long as possible. Even so, over their lives objects deteriorate and risk being displaced or destroyed. How do communities safeguard endangered objects? And how do art historians study images that are no longer extant? Our group addresses these questions theoretically, historically, and materially, to tackle how the instability of objects shapes the way we handle, think, and write about them.

Scientific Resources: Library

Scientific Resources: Library

The library holds one of the world's most important collections of research and source literature on the post-antique art and cultural history of Italy and the Mediterranean region, as well as an archive of literary bequests. First created in the late 19th century as the library of Henriette Hertz, founder of the Bibliotheca Hertziana, the collection today ranges from rare incunabula to genuine digital publications.

Scientific Resources: Photographic Collection

Scientific Resources: Photographic Collection

With a collection of more than 1,300,000 photographs, negatives, digital images and digitized material, primarily on Italian art and architecture from late antique until the present day, the Photographic Collection is one of the world's leading art historical photo archives. Scientific photographic campaigns using state-of-the-art technology support the research at the institute, anticipate research projects, and define new standards for documentary photography.

prisma & Research Report

prisma & Research Report

To what extent does the medium of film enhance our appreciation of historical space and of visual culture? Which methods offer themselves to those investigating modern and contemporary art? What exactly is the relationship between drawing and observing in early modern science and art? And what can the fragile paper substrate reveal about a historical drawing’s passage through time? Explore these and many other fascinating issues in our Research Magazine prisma! For our complete portfolio of research activities for 2022–2024, please consult our Research Report. 

Current Information

News

Istituto Centrale per la Grafica, Palazzo Poli, Via Poli 54, Rome
Opening hours: 3 March – 7 June 2026, Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Important Notice

The volumes in the external warehouse in Settebagni with shelf numbers KatV, X, U, Y, Per Grandi can be ordered weekly (maximum 5 volumes). Requests must be sent to the e-mail address settebagni@biblhertz.it by 1 p.m. every Tuesday, stating the following information:
  • Name and number of the valid user card
  • Shelf number and title of the volume
The ordered books can be collected from the information desk on Wednesday mornings from 9.00 am.

Opening Hours & Admission

Please note our updated opening hours and terms of admission. More

Videos of our events

A selection of recordings of our events is available on our Vimeo channel. If you cannot find what you're looking for, please contact .

Events

La città sotto inchiesta: Meridionali a Torino (B. Giordani e U. Zatterin, 1961); Fata Morgana (L. del Fra 1961)

Ciclo "La città sotto inchiesta"
Evento pubblico senza registrazione
Mar 31, 2026 06:00 PM (Local Time Germany) - Apr 1, 2026 12:00 PM
Villino Stroganoff, Via Gregoriana 22 e Palazzo Zuccari, Via Gregoriana 28

La città sotto inchiesta: Cortile Cascino (R.M. Young e M. Roemer, 1962); Licht für Palermo (Karl Gass, 1961)

Ciclo "La città sotto inchiesta"
Evento pubblico senza registrazione
Apr 14, 2026 06:00 PM (Local Time Germany) - Apr 15, 2026 12:00 PM
Villino Stroganoff, Via Gregoriana 22 e Palazzo Zuccari, Via Gregoriana 28

Temporalities of AI

Conference
Public event without registration
Apr 17, 2026 11:00 AM (Local Time Germany) - Apr 21, 2026 04:00 PM
Villino Stroganoff, Via Gregoriana 22, 00187 Rome and online

Ut pictura comoedia: The Andreini Family and the Arts in Renaissance and Baroque Italy

"Henriette Hertz" Lecture by Sarah Gwyneth Ross
Registration mandatory until April 13, 2026
Apr 21, 2026 06:00 PM - 07:30 PM (Local Time Germany)
Villino Stroganoff, Via Gregoriana 22, 00187 Rom

Verso un’epistemologia mediterranea: il Mediterraneo che ci interroga

Iain Chambers
Evento pubblico senza registrazione
Apr 22, 2026 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
Villino Stroganoff, Via Gregoriana 22, 00187 Rome and online

Exhibitions on site

Le viaggiatrici | Weibliche Reisende | Female Travelers

Mostra curata da Philine Helas
Mar 11, 2026 - Apr 30, 2026
Bibliotheca Hertziana, Palazzo Zuccari, Sala del Disegno, Via Gregoriana 30, 00187 Roma

Maarten van Heemskerck e il Fascino di Roma. Percorsi visivi della Città Eterna

Una mostra dell’Istituto Centrale per la Grafica in collaborazione con il Kupferstichkabinett dei Musei Statali di Berlino e la Bibliotheca Hertziana – Istituto Max Planck per la storia dell’arte
Sede: Palazzo Poli, via Poli 54, 00187 Roma
Mar 3, 2026 - Jun 7, 2026
Palazzo Poli, Via Poli 54, 00187 Roma

Disegnare per capire: Franz Graf Wolff-Metternich e la genesi della nuova Basilica di San Pietro. Ipotesi e ricostruzioni (1953–1978)

Mostra di ricerca curata da Marta Guaglianone, Golo Maurer, Vitale Zanchettin
Oct 9, 2025 - Jun 26, 2026
Palazzo Zuccari (Foyer, Sala Terrena), Via Gregoriana 30, 00187 Roma

New Publications


Einzelveröffentlichungen & Kooperationen
Römische Forschungen der Bibliotheca Hertziana
Bellori Edition
Römisches Jahrbuch
Heinrich Wölfflin – Complete Works
Hertziana Studies in Art History
Publications outside the series & Cooperations
Quaderni della Bibliotheca Hertziana
Studi della Bibliotheca Hertziana
Publications outside the series & Cooperations
Römische Studien der Bibliotheca Hertziana

Media


Ach, Mensch! | Tristan Weddigen über KI in der Kunstwissenschaft?

Ach, Mensch! | Tristan Weddigen über KI in der Kunstwissenschaft?

Podcast
Ein Bild im Stile von van Gogh – kein Problem! Mit KI lässt sich Kunst imitieren oder Fälschungen enttarnen. Auch für das wissenschaftliche Arbeiten mit KI ist Kreativität gefragt. Tristan Weddigen ist Direktor an der Bibliotheca Hertziana, dem Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte in Rom und unterstützt junge Wissenschaftler und Wissenschaftlerinnen dabei, Künstliche Intelligenzen zu ihrem Vorteil zu nutzen.
Now We Have Seen. Women and Art in 1970s Italy

Now We Have Seen. Women and Art in 1970s Italy

Video
The film traces the work of Italian women artists in the 1970s and links it to the theoretical discourses and social achievements of the feminist movement, which, like no other protest movement in this period, had an enduring impact upon Italian society. 
Supporting Scholars at Risk

Supporting Scholars at Risk

Video
This video portrays seven Ukrainian and Russian fellows whom the Bibliotheca Hertziana - Max Institute for Art History, Rome welcomes and supports as contribution to the #ScienceForUkraine initiative since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The fellows tell us about their past, present, and future from a professional and personal point of view. Their fields of research and their personal experience remind us once more that peace is a precious privilege and that freedom is the foundation of all research activity.
Ach, Mensch! | Sietske Fransen über wissenschaftliches Mikroskopieren

Ach, Mensch! | Sietske Fransen über wissenschaftliches Mikroskopieren

Podcast
Was haben Forscher und Forscherinnen gesehen, als sie vor 300 Jahren durch die ersten Mikroskope geguckt haben? Und was sehen wir heute beim Mikroskopieren durch die alten und durch moderne Geräte? Sietske Fransen vom Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte in Rom ist eine, die es ausprobiert.
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