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.

Current Information

Special closure in March

The library and photo collection will be closed on March 29, 2023 for an internal event.

Research Exhibition

Christoph Keller
Data Error – Roma Antichità
16.02.–14.04.2023

Notice


At the beginning of February 2023, the Photographic Collection's major digitization project started. For this reason, the following sections will presumably not be available for consultation until mid-May:
 
  •  ARTISTI (FROM "A" TO LEONARDO DA VINCI)
  • DIS (Disegni)
  • TOP. ITALIA (TRENTINO, PIEMONTE, VALLE D’AOSTA, LIGURIA, LOMBARDIA, FRIULI, VENETO, EMILIA ROMAGNA, UMBRIA)

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

Gray Zones in Black and White: Bauhaus Photography Under Nazism

Elizabeth Otto
Public event without registration
Mar 21, 2023 06:30 PM - 08:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
Villino Stroganoff, Via Gregoriana 22, RM 00187 Rome. In person and online

Transient Photographs: How Time Reshapes the Photographic Archive

Steffen Siegel
Public event without registration
Mar 23, 2023 06:30 PM - 08:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
Villino Stroganoff, Via Gregoriana 22, RM 00187 Rome. In person and online

Perceptions of Aging and Old Age: Thresholds and Life-Cycles

Conference
Event open to the public without registration
Mar 28, 2023 09:15 AM (Local Time Germany) - Mar 29, 2023 05:30 PM
March 28th: Villino Stroganoff, Via Gregoriana 22, 00187 Rome and online (Vimeo https://vimeo.com/event/2092675) and March 29th: The Norwegian Institute in Rome, Viale Trenta Aprile 33, 00153 Roma (Online via ZOOM)

Second Sex, Gender Check and the Feminist Avant-Garde

Beáta Hock
Event open to the public without registration
Mar 30, 2023 03:00 PM - 05:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
Villino Stroganoff, Via Gregoriana 22, 00187 Rome and online

Il lavoro in città III: La valigia dei sogni (Luigi Comencini, 1953)

Ciclo: Il lavoro in città. Spazio urbano, corpi femminili e forme del lavoro nel cinema italiano degli anni ’50 e ’60
Evento pubblico senza registrazione
Apr 5, 2023 06:00 PM (Local Time Germany) - Apr 6, 2023 12:30 PM
Introduzione: Villino Stroganoff, Via Gregoriana 22, Dibattito: Via Gregoriana 28 / Sala riunioni

New Publications


Quaderni della Bibliotheca Hertziana
Quaderni della Bibliotheca Hertziana
Studi della Bibliotheca Hertziana
Quaderni della Bibliotheca Hertziana
Römische Studien der Bibliotheca Hertziana
Quaderni della Bibliotheca Hertziana
Bellori Edition
Heinrich Wölfflin – Complete Works
Architektenreisen

Media


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.
Palimpsest Naples. Natural Disasters

Palimpsest Naples. Natural Disasters

Video
The third episode of our video series Hertziana Insights explores the effects of natural disasters on Naples' collective identity, art, architecture and urban tissue.
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