Theodora Rontzova; Zoë Vandenhende (KU Leuven, Belgium)
What happens when a canonical Renaissance anatomical manuscript meets immersive, social Virtual Reality? Within the framework of the Horizon-funded IMPULSE project (Immersive Digitisation: Upcycling Cultural Heritage towards New Reviving Strategies), our presentation will explore the digitization of De Humani Corporis Fabrica (1543) at KU Leuven Libraries and its transformation into a shared VR environment that disrupts conventional reading and display methods. By placing the Fabrica in an ergonomic, navigable, multi-user virtual space, we interrogate the manuscript’s form and specifically its cultural legacy. Rather than treating text as static content, we can approach it as a dynamic, multimodal medium – letters, drawings, and annotations become manipulable elements inviting interaction and reinterpretation by diverse audiences.
This reinterpretation challenges conventional perceptions embedded in early modern book design and opens new pedagogical possibilities, for example through the incorporation of AI-assisted (annotation) tools, layered meaning-making, and artistic remixing by users beyond the medical and historical fields – extending engagement to art students, designers, and the general public.
By positioning early printed heritage in a playful yet rigorous digital frame, our presentation will illustrate a new mode of critical engagement with print culture – expanding not only who accesses these materials, but how they are experienced, interpreted, and reimagined.