Historical Network Analysis and tools for a digital methodological historical approach to the Biscari Archive of Catania

Abstract

The Paternò Castello (Princes of Biscari) Archive, preserved at the State Archive of Catania – amongst one of the most crucial family archives – is of the complex historical heritage that can lead historians to write the history of Catania, of his actors and how the latter determined the cultural structure of the city. Most scholars, however, have never managed to exhaust all the questions and answers. Today, the digital methodological perspective and its ITC tools, such as Handwritten Text Recognition (Transkribus), Historical Network Analysis, and web-based tools such as Keyphrase-Digger open up new historical paths. Upgrading archival sources to their digital version will allow “quantitative-qualitative” research that would shed new light on historical actors and events, networks and resources of the history of Catania and the Two Sicilies.