Imaginum Patavinae Scientiae Archivum
IPSA is a digital library system able to manage the description and the digital version of documents, dated especially from the late Middle Ages to the fifteenth century, that are of interest of botany, medicine, astronomy, and the ancient astrology.
The software application has been envisaged and implemented by the University of Padua to study the medieval science and the scientific image in its tradition and evolution, in particular in relation to the studies conducted internally to the university.
IPSA constitutes a valuable aid for people interested to the genesis of the modern science also trough the use of the visual transmission of knowledge.
Main IPSA goals are:
- spreading the knowledge of ancient images both for their scientific and historical importance;
- creating links between images to relate them to different cultural areas of interest;
- showing the importance that the University of Padua has played since the end of the Middle Ages in the spreading and development of sciences and culture.
Many of the pathways between images are still unknown and this is one of the reasons why IPSA becomes an essential tool in the field of the related scientific areas.