A Literary GIS of Trentino: Opportunities for Territorial Enhancement from Geographic Research and Literature

This contribution deals with a project that is currently being developed, which aims at creating a Literary GIS that will collect excerpts from literary works describing travelling experiences in the territory of the Province of Trento. The application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies to literary and geo-historical research has established itself as one of the most dynamic 'elds of development of Digital Humanities. However, in Italy, the use of GIS is still limited. The cataloguing, transcription and mapping of extracts from texts written by travellers who have crossed the Adige Valley and described it between the 17th and the 20th century will enable the development of a speci'c database and the integration of geolocation data using GIS software. The selected passages, ranging from travel reports to the 'rst ante litteram tourist guides, can oHer a series of clues on the social, environmental, landscape-related and territorial context of the past centuries; they also allow us to re ect on the perception and subsequent narration of the visited areas by foreign travellers. At the same time, the database can become the foundation of several activities of public dissemination, both in the 'eld of education and in that of tourism enhancement. A web-GIS database could support the creation of literary and cultural itineraries, following the footsteps of famous writers and rediscovering their narration of past landscapes in Trentino.