Aby Warburg's Mnemosyne. The Atlas exhibition in Venice

In this monographic edition, La rivista di Engramma presents the complete range of materials dedicated to the exhibition entitled Mnemosyne: iter per labyrinthum, which took place in Venice between 19 March and 2 April 2004, and was organised by the seminary class of the Classical Tradition at IUAV Venice University, in collaboration with the Associazione Mnemosyne in Rome, the Centro Warburg Italia, and the Villard d'Honnecourt International Doctorate in Architecture.

The materials in the exhibition – the 63 plates of Aby Warburg's Atlas in photographed reproductions from the "Daedalus version" of Mnemosyne, also presented by the Centro Warburg Italia in Siena in 1998 – were made available by the Associazione Culturale Mnemosyne (Rome).

The exhibition, coordinated by Monica Centanni and Alberto Ferlenga, was housed in an ideal location in the Palazzo of the Levi Foundation on the Grand Canal, opposite the Accademia. The plates of the Mnemosyne Atlas were distributed in the four halls of the Foundation, accompanied by introductory texts on Warburg's life and works.

To present and illustrate the plates of the Bilderatlas, an itinerary divided into twelve sections, plus an introductory and a closing section, was adopted, leading to the plates being divided into fourteen sections, with explanatory panels at the beginning of the itinerary and summary panels in each hall. Each section, presented by a brief text and colour coded, indicated a possible guide to interpreting the internal structure of Mnemosyne, identifying a series of themes that innervate the Atlas – from astrology to formulas of Pathos, from the wanderings of the pagan gods to the outbreak of the antiquity during the Renaissance.

Every plate was accompanied by a title and brief resumé of its contents, a selection of Aby Warburg's notes, a caption, and a colour coded reference system giving indications of the links between the plates, and the different sections of the exhibition. As a result of the success of the colour-coded reference system which highlighted the connections between groups of plates and single plates, it was possible, for example, to identify at a glance the relationship between section 2 (archaeological models) at the beginning of the itinerary and several plates in subsequent groups: 5 (the eruption of antiquity), 6 (Dionysiac formulas of pathos), 12 (engrams). La Rivista di Egramma also makes the links between the plates and sections presented in the exhibition available on the website, thus emphasising them by the opportunities for surfing offered by the internet.

The materials in the exhibition were made more accessible as a result of a series of conferences and lectures by scholars who analysed several plates of the Atlas following an ideal itinerary in several stages (Athens, Venice, Hamburg……), from East to West, in order to give a sense of orientation to the labyrinth of the Mnemosyne Atlas.