Culture Minister Dario Franceschini on Friday announced the creation of an Italian Digital Library aimed at valorising the vast heritage contained in Italy's libraries and archives. "Today I signed a ministerial decree which will now be financed with two million euros for the birth of a Digital Library," he said.

"We have 101 archives, 37 libraries and the archives of all the superintendencies in which there is the documented and photographed history of the whole of the country, monument by monument. The Digital Library aims to gather this boundless heritage".