The DECRETO LEGISLATIVO 22nd January 2004, n. 42 (Decreto Urbani) represents the Code of the Cultural Heritage and the Landscape. The Article 17 gives a national regulation structure concerning how to catalogue cultural heritage.

The content of the Code is summarized as follows:

1. The Ministry for the cultural heritage and activities, in collaboration with Regions and further territorial public agencies, has the commitment of assuring and coordinate the classification of Cultural Heritage and all the connected activities.
2. The procedures and the modalities of classification are established under ministerial decree. The Ministry, in collaboration with Regions, characterizes and defines common methodologies at a national level regarding collection, exchange, access and elaboration of the data, net-connection of data banks among State, Regions and all the other public land-related agencies.
3. The Ministry and Regions, in collaboration with universities, agree to the definition of programs for studies, scientific researches and initiatives concerning procedures of inventorying.
4. The Ministry, Regions and other public agencies are committed to ensure the inventory of public Cultural Heritage, and of the private Cultural Heritage according to the respective owners.
5. All the data considered in this article belong to the National Catalogue of the Cultural Heritage.
6. The examination of the data concerning the issued declarations is controlled in order to ensure the heritage and the protection of the privacy.

The Decreto Legislativo 112/1998 institutes the transfer of administrative functions and tasks from the State to the Regions and to the local agencies in several fields, including the field of Cultural Heritage. According to the decree, the Ministry for the cultural heritage and activities and Regions reached an agreement concerning the inventory of Cultural Heritage. The agreement is based on five fundamental points as follows:

1. The Ministry, through the Central Institute for Catalogue and Documentation (ICCD), supplies to the unification and emanation of common standards and methodologies concerning procedures of inventorying collections. The Ministry and Regions cooperate in the definition of these standards and methodologies.
2. Classification procedure is an essential instrument to manage and to emphasize the value of movable and immovable heritage in the territory and in museums, and also in promoting and the carrying out educational and research activities.
3. Every Region must carry out an informative system set up for the cultural and environmental heritage. This system must be realized in order to be in communication with the Informative System of the National General Catalogue; the system will be accessible to external users. The Regional Informative System for cultural and environmental heritage connected with the National Central System, constitutes focal point at regional scale for documentation and inventorying activities.
4. The Ministry and the Regions, through an appropriate Commission, supply to:

• promote and verifying common activities for the definition of standards and cataloguing methodologies;
• establish modalities of management of the copyrights on shared data;
• establish programs and projects at national level based on the employment of national, regional and eventually European financial supports;
• characterize instruments for monitoring of the inventorying activities at national and regional level;
• study new ways of connecting the National Central System and Regional System, especially focused on exchanging information by net;
• verify the state of the described programs and activities.

1. Everyone who concurs to the Regional Informative System supplies to carry out the operations for the collection and implementation of the data, according to national methodologies and standards.

This law is promulgated by the Emilia Romagna region as a consequence of the Decreto Legislativo 112/1998. It establishes a list of rules regarding museums, historic archives and libraries of the region.

The Direttiva ai sensi dell’art.10 della Legge Regionale 18/2000 establishes a number of standards and goals for museums, historic archives and libraries of the region Emilia Romagna. Paragraph n.7.7.1.6 of the Direttiva is referred to museums and regards the documentation of both the exposed and not exposed collection. In according to this paragraph the basic documentation must be constituted and supported by:

• a conservative form filled for each object of the collection, containing data regarding its position as in the exhibition room as in the storeroom, preventive measures, interventions of maintenance and restoration. The forms must be filled following the model defined by ICR (Istituto Centrale per il Restauro), OPD (Opificio delle Pietre Dure) and by the Istituto dei Beni Artistici Culturali e Naturali della Regione Emilia-Romagna;
• reports or forms filled by specialized personnel for that objects of the collection that have undergone restoration intervention. These reports or forms must contain a graphic and photographic description of the restored objects;
• an adequate informatic instrumentation to use in the elaboration, updating and correlation of the data.

Paragraph 7.7.2.1 of the Direttiva regards the assumption of new objects in the collection of the museum. According to this paragraph both the exposed and not exposed collection must be quantified and its variations monitored. Each object that become part of the collection, even if only temporarily, must be registered.

Paragraph 7.7.2.2 of the Direttiva is still referred to registration and documentation. In according to this paragraph an inventory of all the objects of the collection must exist in printed version. This inventory must be periodically revised. Furthermore is recommended to provide at the elaboration of a digital version of the inventory, quantifying the percentage of the digitalized data. For this operation is recommended the use of the specific software developed to create data in the format established by the Ministry for the Cultural Heritage and Activities.