There was, however, a flip side to this technological innovation coin. While programs were becoming ever more flexible and adaptable to the needs of the historian, the historian, too, was required to bend to the use of these research tools. The programs were becoming increasingly sophisticated and complex to manage, given that they were able to manage data that was increasingly complex and sophisticated.. Another problem emerged: since the data that the computers were managing were ever more complex, the research require the most up to date hardware with the largest possible memory, and thus a continuous hardware turnover. Finding the necessary funding was a problem in some sectors of Historical research, which is, traditionally a "poor" field where funding is concerned.

In the ten or twelve years since the first application of computer science to Historical research, many scholars have acquired personal computers. They are used mainly for word processing, but also for simple data processing (DB3, Access, Excel, etc.)

By the time the personal computer and its applications had been fairly widely diffused, another innovation took place. Multimedia presented new possibilities and challenges in its application to historical research. Multimedia is defined here as the processing of text, images, and films which are included in the hypertext structure of a computerized product that allows the user to navigate individually.

Paradoxically, the new prospect of computer applications caught off-guard the researchers who had updated neither their hardware nor their research methods . In fact, multimedia requires expensive computers with a lot of memory, sophisticated software and calls for Information Technology (IT) skills that require specific professional training, which the History researcher rarely has. Thus, the number of Historians able to do research in this direction was limited. It was no longer possible to work at home or at one's desk. This work requires highly specialized computer laboratories equipped with the instruments and with technical staff who are able to adapt the instruments to the needs of the research and not vice versa, as was the case when computer science was first applied in Historical research. This is a delicate moment in the area of Historical research. Once again, there is the risk of dividing the work between the two professions. However, it is only on the basis of the combined knowledge from the two different fields of scientific research and development that cutting edge research, where History and Computer Science develop together, can be carried out (note 1).

In addition to its application in teaching, which is fast expanding, multimedia applied to Historical research has become a vast field, especially regarding the presentation of results. In fact, a new way to present results is not the only thing hypertext allows for. While it requires organization and clarity in the exposition of results, is allows one to "see" the work in progress and at completion, and opens up the work to the development of new fields of investigation, obviously in direct proportion to the content of the sources and the imagination of the Historian. One must get used to the idea that, in this phase of rapid evolution of instruments, research results are not only a published on paper, but will increasingly be published electronically, which allows for numerous images and alphanumeric information.

The publication on the Internet of research results is thus possible. Their being accessible to anyone obviously presents copyright problems which have not yet entirely been solved. However, this system has the priceless advantage of getting immediate feedback regarding the impact of the new research and facilitates further development in the direction that the scientific community deems necessary.

These considerations are valid for all fields of Historical research, not only for Urban History, which represents an important field in the application of Information Technology. It is a new frontier for instruments and methodologies, in that it deals with the three dimensional reconstruction of the city in its various historical periods.

1. This problem was well understood by the Italian Ministrial authorities, who, in 1996, consented to the activation of a Research Doctorate in History and Information Technology at the University of Bologna (coord. F. Bocchi), in order to promote experimentation in the use of new technologies for Historical research.