The Institute’s original website was designed in 1998 by Steve Killings, then at the Centre for Medieval Studies in the University of Toronto, with the assistance of Fred Unwalla. A thoroughly redesigned version, retaining its old pontifical dominion as <www.chass.utoronto.ca/~pontifex> but also enjoying a new domain as <www.pims.ca>, was introduced in October 2000. It was widely admired, anathematized for imaginary transgressions, and eventually forced to close down. A completely redesigned site was launched on 20 September 2001, and won first prize in the academic category in the 2001 Blue Orb Awards in web design at the University of Toronto. New designs of the homepage, the index pages to each of the sections, as well as new images and other improvements were introduced in September 2004. The current site is the result of many renovations of structure and organization carried out over the summer of 2005.

The Mirror Stage
From its earliest incarnation, the site has been organized along three distinct, if simple, levels: a general overview of the range of information available on the site via the homepage opens on to index pages for each of the site’s eight sections, before bringing viewers to detailed information on lower-level pages. The goal throughout has been the use of a concise, transparent architecture, so that orientation within and navigation from any single level is intuitive and seamless.

The Institute website was designed and created by the pseudonymous Philoctetes Ink. It is overseen by a committee that draws on the various expertise of all the editors in the Department of Publications. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

The Realm of the Imaginary
A few words about images on the site. A large number of them draw on the splendid collection of manuscripts in the Archivio dell’Abbazia, Montecassino. We are deeply grateful to don Faustino Avagliano, Archivist, for his generous permission to use the illustrations on the Institute’s site. The Abbey retains exclusive rights to all its images: please address all enquiries to don Faustino.

The gallery of images of the giving and receiving of books found on the homepage represents a visual translatio studii. It is but small homage to an enlightened benefactor. The images show Gregory the Great, with an angel, and the Deacon Peter (Montecassino, MS 73, fol. v); Benedict giving a copy of his Rule to John I (MS 175, p. 2); and the abbot of Montecassino offering a book to Benedict (MS 73, fol. iv).

The magnificently illustrated manuscript of the De rerum naturis by Rabanus Maurus is among the most storied possessions of the Abbey of Montecassino, and MS 132 is, unsurprisingly, the source of many images used throughout the the site’s many pages. The Institute Library is equally fortunate in possessing a facsimile of the manuscript (Torino, 1994), which has been the direct source of many of the new images found on the site. We are indebted to Steven Bednarski, sometime post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for Medieval Studies and now of York University and St Michael's School, who took new digital photographs for the latest revision of the site in September 2004, for his patience and for his generous and expert assistance. The remaining images from the manuscript are reproduced from Guglielmo Cavallo’s L’universo medievale: Il manoscritto cassinese “De rerum naturis” di Rabano Mauro (Torino, 1996) and from the comprehensive catalogue of I codici decorati dell’Archivio di Montecassino, ed. Giulia Orofino (4 vols to date, Rome, 1994–2005). None of the contributors to the Commentari volume accompanying the facsimile of the De rerum naturis should be held responsible for the unruly ways in which their sage iconographical interpretations of the manuscript have been appropriated for the captions.

Two exhibition catalogues, Virgilio e il Chiostro: Manoscritti di autori classici e civiltà monastica (Rome, 1996) and I Fiori e Frutti santi on Saint Benedict and the Benedictine Rule (Milan, 1998), both edited by Mariano Dell’Omo, also facilitated the inventory of signs and images, providing valuable codicological and bibliographical details.

The copyright of all other images is retained by their respective owners.

The Entry into the Symbolic (or, the Other)
Warm thanks to the many individuals who have helped in the creation and design of the site. It was Virginia Brown, who as co-director of the Monumenta Liturgica Beneventana, suggested approaching the Abbey of Montecassino for the use of its illustrations. Colleagues in the Department of Publications, especially Jonathan Black and Jean Hoff, have suffered many questions with patience.

The current website owes debts to many people. Particular thanks to Dan Derkach, Senior Network Specialist and Andreea Gheorghe, Data Centre Administrator and Programmer at the CHASS Computing Facility for providing expert technical support; to Aladin Alaily of Aladin Web Hosting Services for his imaginative Java script; and above all to Tina Goertz, from the Resource Centre for Academic Technology, for her comprehensive review of the organization of the site, and its even more remarkable systematic revision. She has dealt with a fastidious and sometimes contrarian client with intelligence, wit, and flair.

Fred R. Unwalla
Webmaster / Retifex