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Pinakes is a non-commercial tool the aim of
which is to offer a renewed historiographic approach to the classification of the
scientific heritage. Thanks to the integration of different types of objects, such as
instruments, manuscripts, texts, iconography a.o., Pinakes aims at transforming the
traditional approach to the primary sources of the history of science into a sort of
archeology of scientific knowledge.
In order to achieve this ambitious project it was necessary to design a model of
data-base, Pinakes, able to bring different classes of objects and items into one
environment.
Thus, Pinakes offers both the possibility to develop a specific research within a
restricted disciplinary target and the possibility to carry out large classification of
libraries, archives and museums.
Pinakes has been thought as a database capable of hosting different levels of data
structuring. On the basis of the choiche of the target, the user might be able to manage
data form a very specific level to a more general description of the items
classified.
Pinakes is a relational database and is divided into three different bodies:
 PinakesMain (Main
engine and general input interface)
PinakesText (Text
retrieval and structuring engine)
PinakesWeb (The remote
access interface)
PinakesText can also be used during insert phase from the PinakesMain interface but
it can work as a stand-alone database for project that focus only on text retrieve.
PinakesPerson is an archive of standardised person names (international naming
rules for persons) that comes with PinakesMain and offers the advantages that all projects
using PinakesMain will have a coherent and unique name index. The same rules and
advantages are given for PinakesPlaces.
Pinakes input forms, help and the remote access interface are available in four
languages (Italian, English, German and French).
Pinakes has been
build within the research framework activity of the Istituto Museo di
Storia della Scienza (Florence) and in collaboration with the
following European institutions:
Blanceflor Foundation (Stockholm), CNRS (Paris), Istituto & Museo
di Storia della Scienza (Florence), Office for History of Science -
Uppsala University (Uppsala), Uppsala University Library (Uppsala).
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