Aims and Actual Outcomes of Tuscany CASTORE Project: A Final Balance (Codice Scopus 2-s2.0-85034076435)

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. Considering the overall profile of the CASTORE project, several complex operational phases envisaged filing, digital reproduction, and georeferencing of primary historical cadastral maps: the General Cadastre of Tuscany (also known as Catasto Ferdinandeo-Leopoldino), covering a wide part of current regional continental and insular territory; the complementary Bourbon and post-unification cadastres of the province of Lucca; the Este cadastre of the territories of Massa and Carrara; and the French cadastre, integrating some of the gaps of the General Cadastre of Tuscany (Pazzagli 1979).