The paper presents an overview on the recovery of Tuscan data (audio and accompanying materials) of the Carta dei Dialetti Italiani (CDI). The study aims at showing the challenges met during the realisation of the CDI and highlighting the importance of recovering and safeguarding a research project largely forgotten by the very same Italian linguistic community. The relationship between oral sources and written documentation collected in the project allows us to observe the construction of the 'linguistic data' precisely from the recovered audio materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]