This paper sheds light on the manufacturing processes, techniques, and materials used in the splendid illuminations of the oldest surviving copy of De Balneis Puteolanis, preserved at the Angelica Library in Rome (Ms. 1474). The codex is one of the masterpieces of mid-13th-century Italian-Southern illumination, traditionally referred to as the commission of Manfredi, son of Frederick II. The findings reported in the article result from the interdisciplinary study conducted in 2021–2023 in the framework of “Codex 4D: journey in four dimensions into the manuscript”, a multidisciplinary project involving many competences and dealing with art-historical studies on manuscripts, diagnostic and conservative analyses, scientific dissemination, storytelling, and public engagement. The considerations we present aims at increasing the knowledge of book artefacts while respecting their extraordinary complexity; data from non-invasive diagnostic investigations (X-ray fluorescence, Vis-NIR reflectance and Raman spectroscopies, hyperspectral imaging, and multi-band imaging techniques as ultraviolet, reflectography, and thermography), carried out in situ with portable instruments on the book, have been integrated with observations resulting from the historical-artistic study, and the reading of some ancient treatises on the production and use of the pigments and dyes employed in illumination.

The H2IOSC project aims to establish a federated cluster of European distributed research infrastructures involved in the humanities and cultural heritage sectors, with operating nodes across Italy. Through four key RIs—DARIAH-IT, CLARIN, OPERAS, and E-RIHS—the project promotes collaboration among researchers with interdisciplinary expertise. Within this framework, DIGILAB functions as the digital access platform for the Italian node of E-RIHS. Conceived as a socio-technical infrastructure for the Heritage Science community, DIGILAB is designed to manage heterogeneous data and metadata through advanced knowledge graph representations. The platform adheres to the FAIR principles and supports the complete data lifecycle, enabling the development and maintenance of Heritage Digital Twins. DIGILAB integrates diverse categories of information related to cultural sites and objects, encompassing historical and artistic datasets, diagnostic analyses, 3D models, and real-time monitoring data. This monitoring capability is achieved through the deployment of cutting-edge Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and large-scale Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). As part of DIGILAB, we developed SENNSE (v1.0), a fully open hardware/software platform dedicated to environmental and structural monitoring. SENNSE allows the remote, real-time observation and control of cultural heritage sites (collecting microclimatic parameters such as temperature, humidity, noise levels) and of cultural objects (collecting object-specific data including vibrations, light intensity, and ultraviolet radiation). The visualization and analytical tools integrated within SENNSE transform these datasets into actionable insights, thereby supporting advanced research and conservation strategies within the Cultural Heritage domain. In the following sections, we provide a detailed description of the SENNSE platform, outlining its hardware components and software modules, and discussing its benefits. Furthermore, we illustrate its application through two representative use cases: one conducted in a controlled laboratory environment and another implemented in a real-world heritage context, exemplified by the “Biblioteca Bernardini” in Lecce, Italy.