Apr VSS - VERSPERA Project

The Society for Court Studies - European Branch

VERSPERA Project: Versailles From Historical Records to Virtual Worlds

Benjamin Ringot, Centre de recherche du château de Versailles VERSPERA Project : Versailles From Historical Records to Virtual Worlds The VERSPERA project, spearheaded by the Centre de recherche du château de Versailles since 2013, – with the financial support of the Fondation des sciences du patrimoine (ANR-17-EURE-0021, École Universitaire de Recherche Paris Seine Humanités, Création, Patrimoine - Fondation des sciences du patrimoine) and the French Ministry of Culture – is a multidisciplinary initiative aimed at preserving, digitising, and valorising the 17th- and 18th-century historical plans of the Versailles estate. These documents, almost 9000 items, housed in the Archives nationales de France and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, constitute a vital corpus for analysing the architectural, cultural, and political dimensions of the french emblematic royal residence.The project prioritises the preservation of delicate historical documents, which are particularly susceptible to degradation due to their material fragility and age. By carrying out a systematic inventory and exhaustive restoration work, followed by very high definition digitisation, VERSPERA not only ensures the long-term survival of these plans but also facilitates free access to these invaluable sources for not only researchers but also the general public worldwide via the Internet. This approach underscores the importance of balancing physical conservation with the democratisation of access to heritage materials. It also stresses the importance of the free circulation of images and metadata, as part of the open science approachThrough the digitisation of the Versailles plans, the project unlocks new potential for interdisciplinary inquiry. The resulting digital corpus enables detailed spatial, structural, and historical analyses that would be unattainable through traditional archival methods. The accessibility of these materials fosters collaboration across fields such as architectural history and digital humanities, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of the estate’s evolution. Creating a veritable documentary ecosystem, VERSPERA also feeds into all the research and training initiatives of the Centre de recherche du château de Versailles. For example, the digitised plans can be used more easily within the framework of studies relating to rooms in the palace and their evolution or as visual supports for the creation of a site to geolocate courtiers' flats in Versailles (IMMERSAILLES project).Central to VERSPERA’s innovation is its integration of 3D modeling technologies. Developed in partnership with the ÉTIS laboratory (Équipes Traitement de l’Information et Systèmes, UMR8051, Cergy Paris Université / ENSEA Cergy / CNRS) and students at CY Cergy Paris Université, these reconstructions allow scholars to reimagine lost, altered, or only conceptualized spaces within the Versailles estate (Mignard's gallery; theatre for Louis XV; bedroom of the Duchess of Burgundy at the Grand Trianon; etc.). By grounding these models in rigorous archival evidence, VERSPERA bridges the gap between historical documentation and experiential visualization. They allow the plans to be re-examined from a practical point of view, by questioning, for example, their level of veracity, detail and missing elements.As a flagship project in digital heritage for the Centre de Recherche du château de Versailles, VERSPERA exemplifies the transformative potential of combining traditional research methodologies with cutting-edge technologies. By enhancing the accessibility and interpretive possibilities of historical resources, the project not only enriches our understanding of Versailles but also serves as a template for addressing broader challenges in heritage preservation and research dissemination.

Benjamin Ringot is Research Coordinator at the Centre de recherche du château de Versailles, overseeing the Research, Trainings and Conferences activities. More specifically, he coordinates the ‘Networks and sociability at the court of France, 17th-18th century’ research programme and its ‘Prosocour’ database, which lists individuals who gravitated to the French court from Louis XIV to Louis XVI and aims to study sociability networks at court. He is also a member of the scientific team behind research projects such as VERSPERA and IMMERSAILLES. Finally, he teaches at the École du Louvre, where he co-supervises Masters students in the ‘Versailles’ research group.

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Apr VSS - VERSPERA Project

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Apr VSS - VERSPERA Project

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