Latin meets gaming at Florence’s Museo di San Marco

A new free educational video game at the Museo di San Marco is using art and interactive storytelling to introduce students to Latin through the world of Renaissance painter Fra Angelico.

The project, titled Ars et Anima, was created by students from the Galluzzo comprehensive school on the southern outskirts of Florence as part of an educational initiative aimed at making classical language studies more accessible and engaging for younger generations.

The initiative was developed within the project Civis Etica: certamen culturae inter otium et negotium in collaboration with Fondazione Franchi and 3D Academy. It also involved the regional directorate of Tuscany’s national museums, part of Italy’s Ministry of Culture.

Learning Latin through gameplay

The game is set inside the Convent of San Marco, the historic Dominican complex where Fra Angelico lived and worked in the 15th century.

Players guide the painter through the convent’s cloisters, meeting six friars linked to different subjects including botany, astronomy, music, mathematics, food culture and art.

Each character poses questions connected to Latin language and culture. Correct answers allow players to collect colours needed to complete the Pala di San Marco, the Renaissance altarpiece revealed at the end of the game.

Organisers describe Ars et Anima as a “serious game” — a format that combines gaming elements such as challenges, scores and progression with educational goals.

Museums and schools experimenting with new formats

The idea behind the project was to move Latin beyond traditional grammar exercises and connect it to everyday Italian language, proverbs and expressions that still derive from Latin roots.

Carlotta Paola Brovadan, director of Tuscany’s national museums, said the project shows how museums can become more participatory spaces able to communicate with younger audiences through contemporary digital tools.

The game also forms part of broader efforts by Florentine museums and schools to experiment with digital learning and new ways of presenting cultural heritage to students and visitors.

Downloads for free are available on the Fondazione Franchi website.

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