Tecnostoria: the Project

The Region of Emilia Romagna has an enviable tradition and culture in mechanics. This tradition is epitomised in the field of high performance motorcars, motorcycles, and engines.
Many of the most technically advanced and fastest motorcars and motorcycles of the world originated, and are still produced, in this area of Italy, examples being Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini, and Ducati.
These companies are regularly at the forefront of technical design and ingenuity in all things automotive.In addition the culture and passion associated with this field of engineering are also still widely diffused in the Region.
Throughout the 20th  century, many automotive makes, some with a long and glorious life, have contributed to the reputation that Emilia-Romagna is the 'Motor Valley' of the automotive sector in Italy. For this reason the Inter-Regional Project 'Terra di Motori' was created. The Project is coordinated by the Regional Bureau of Tourism and Commerce of the Region of Emilia-Romagna.

Emilia-Romagna has access to an enormous treasure house of memories and technical archives relating to the history of the mechanics of motorcars and motorcycles, in particular relating to racing and sporting vehicles.
This treasure house of technical knowledge has however until now remained largely unexplored outside of the companies, it has not been generally available to researchers, students, and other people interested in the history of mechanics.
Tecnostoria aims to preserve this heritage, before the technical documentation is lost or dispersed, by collecting copies of original drawings and sketches and storing them at the various university libraries involved in the project, and producing electronic versions of the documents for general access.
Documents are organised into two data-bases, one for motorcars and one for motorcycles, with sample material for both categories accessible worldwide. The long term aim of Tecnostoria is to trace the technical evolution of engine powered vehicles, using significant examples of design from both sectors.

Tecnostoria is a Project lead and co-financed by the four Public Universities of the Region: the University of Modena & Reggio Emilia, the University of Bologna, the University of Ferrara, and the University of University of Parma. These universities, have by the nature of their research and teaching activities in automotive engineering, acquired recognition at national and international level for their expertise in all areas related to the motor industry.

The project is an ongoing project to create an inter-university unified catalogue of specialized books, publications, journals, and documents owned jointly by the universty libraries involved in the project. This co-resource is designated 'Biblioteca Tecnica Unificata del Veicolo – BTUV', and incorporates the collection of graphical documents describing the technical evolution of motorcars, motorcycles, and engines specific to the area of Emilia-Romagna. This part of the project is the Collezione Tecnostoria and contains information about the organization and contact points at the various university libraries, where copies of the original documents can be viewed and studied. In addition Tecnostoria aims to coordinate all of the scientific, cultural, technological, and productive centres of the Region involved with the project in order to facilitate a regional network of Centres of Excellence on automotive technologies for scientific and educational purposes.