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

Research Exhibition

Elena Subach
Hidden
20.04.–03.07.2023

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-July:
 
  •  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

Closures in June

The Library and Photographic Collection will be closed on June, 2, 19, 29.

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

Rome 10th Century

Conference
Public event without registration
Jun 6, 2023 - Jun 10, 2023
Rome, Italy (BHMPI, École française de Rome, Sapienza Università di Roma)

From Late Medieval to Early Modern Love Boxes

Amy Knight Powell
Public event without registration
Jun 6, 2023 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
Villino Stroganoff, Via Gregoriana 22, 00187 Rome and online

Whose 'Reality'? Art, Philosophy and Ideology in the ČSSR, 1948-1978

Hana Gründler
Public event without registration
Jun 12, 2023 11:00 AM - 01:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
Villino Stroganoff, Via Gregoriana 22, 00187 Rome and online

Art as Project, Project as Art: Antonio Dias and Painting after Conceptual Art

Sérgio Bruno Martins
Online event via Zoom
Jun 13, 2023 02:00 PM - 04:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
Zoom Platform

Shop Talks

Sara Vitacca, Malvina Giordana, Duccio Nobili, Hannah Casey, Wenyi Qian, Torben Hanhart, Alejandro Nodarse
Jun 14, 2023 10:00 AM - 04:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
Villino Stroganoff, Via Gregoriana 22, 00187 Rome

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.
Go to Editor View