History of the site

Origins (1995-1996)

The project was conceived during 1995 and went online in January 1996: one of the very first Italian presences on the web devoted to art history, in an Italy that at the time counted barely 600 sites, almost equally divided between commercial initiatives and the academic world.

The name chosen, “Thais”, recalls the heroine of Anatole France's novel of the same name — from which Massenet drew his opera of the same title —, an artist of Hellenistic Alexandria capable of seducing even the ascetic Paphnutius: a literary reference rather than a programme, chosen for its brevity and originality.

The site started from an existing body of photographs, assembled by Bruno Balestrini over decades of professional work on sculpture and architecture. The first collection published online was the one devoted to Italian sculpture: more than 700 photographs with their entries, organised by historical period, artist and place, in three levels of resolution — a choice made with the users of the time in mind, who often browsed with 14,400 bps modems.

The site is produced by Itaca30, a Milan company founded in 1995, of which Bruno Balestrini was sole director, and offers its content free of charge, in Italian and English.

Growth and recognition

In 1997 an Italian daily newspaper devoted an article to the site, “Itaca30 coniuga Internet e cultura”. In December 1998 Thais was included in the summer edition of “The Internet Phone Book”, a New Zealand guide that selected it among the 3,000 best Internet sites for New Zealand users.

In 1999 the site was placed fourth, out of thirty Italian sites shortlisted, in the “Angelo di Raffaello” award — reserved for the best Italian sites judged on content, graphics, originality and usefulness —, preceded only by the Vatican's site. A review of the time described Thais.it as a “point of reference for Italian sculpture”.

In 2000 the Art History Webmasters Association, an international jury of art historians, gave Thais its award in the “Learning” category as the best encyclopaedic site of the year.

Over the years the site changed connectivity provider several times, in search of bandwidth adequate to the traffic it received — a sign of a substantial audience from the very first years, made up largely of students, researchers and enthusiasts.

The content gradually expanded beyond sculpture and architecture: monographs on individual museums and painting cycles, natural-history repertoires (entomology, malacology, botany), Italian cities, applied arts (folk ceramics, history of textiles) and travel itineraries. The “Romanico” section, devoted to the minor Romanesque buildings of Italy — edited by Ruggero Forti and Denise Zanini — began as a systematic survey in the field, documented with photographs, binoculars and a tape recorder.

Press coverage

Articles and documents kept by the family, cited here by their references and short excerpts.

• Spring 1997 · Italian daily newspaper“Itaca30 coniuga Internet e cultura” (Itaca30 brings together the Internet and culture)
  Presents the site and the Itaca30 project: a free, bilingual archive that began as a gallery of Italian sculpture and was later extended to architecture, entomology, botany and tourism.
• 1999 · Thais.it archive (author not identified)Review of the site
  Reports fourth place in the “Angelo di Raffaello” award, behind the Vatican's site, and calls Thais.it “a point of reference for Italian sculpture”.
• Late 2000 · Italian art periodical“Premi & borse di studio” (Awards & grants) column
  Announces the Art History Webmasters Association award, “Learning” category, as the best encyclopaedic site of 2000.

Some messages from visitors (1998-2000)

Excerpts from messages sent to the editors by visitors to the site, kept in the archive. For privacy, the names of private individuals are reduced to initials and no addresses are given.

“I really must congratulate you on the excellent work you have done. I study art history, and sites like this are an enormous help to me and to anyone who, like me, thirsts for ‘beautiful things’.”

— G. T., art history student, November 1998

“Your site has proved to be a very rich source of information and emotion.”

— F. F., February 1999

“You have a really great website on Italy! I spent two months in Florence and Rome this summer and miss it so much!”

— E. C., Princeton (United States), December 1999

An appeal that went unanswered

Text published on the original site before 2017, presented here as an archival document — not a request that still stands.

In a text published on its own homepage, written in the first person in the voice of the site itself, Thais.it explained that it had been conceived in 1995 and that it was looking for “one or two heirs who can give continuity to the project”, addressing those with “a fair knowledge of building websites, of computer graphics and possibly of photography”.

The appeal went unheeded. Bruno Balestrini died on 21 January 2017; the thais.it domain was later transferred to third parties and now hosts a site with no connection whatsoever to the original photographic archive.

The archive today

The original content — photographs and critical entries — has been recovered and is republished here, under the name of Bruno Balestrini, in a version rebuilt and updated in form but faithful to the materials of the historical archive.

The original Thais.it site can be viewed in its period form, preserved as an archive document and no longer updated: Thais.it archive (1996-2017)