Aims and Actual Outcomes of Tuscany Castore Project: A Final Balance

Sponsored by the Region of Tuscany (Regione Toscana, RT henceforward), the CASTORE project started in cooperation with Tuscany State Archives on the basis of an agreement signed with the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism (MIBACT) in July 2004, and two main objectives were originally established. On the one hand, local government authorities would be provided with a historical cartographic basis enriching cognitive frameworks of spatial organisation, landscape management, and environment planning; on the other hand, the actual value of the first cartographic representations drawn via scientific methods would be definitely enhanced by way of systematic online publication – thus also improving fruition and preservation of original documents at the official archives and facilitating access by private citizens and students as well as technicians and researchers.