Digitalizzazione e ricerca umanistica: il versante dello studioso

The aim of this paper is to analyze shortly the relationship between the recentdevelopment of digital libraries and humanistic research, according to the pointof view of the end-user, the scholar. Medieval manuscript illumination is takenas an example. It can benefit today from the numerous databases dedicated todigital collections of medieval illuminated manuscripts, and it can use advancedsearch functions. Digitization allowed to overcome the phase in which the mi-crofilm replaced the direct consultation of valuable manuscripts. The quality ofdigital images often allows an easy and more effective investigation than thatoffered by direct access to original manuscripts.