resources – Applied Art History

Generally free and accessible. Continually updated, and (obviously) wildly non-exhaustive.

Remember: If you don’t speak the language of the site you’re searching through, a service like Google Translate can help you translate the terms you’re looking for.

glossary and bibliographies

IMAGES OF MEDIEVAL ART AND ARCHITECTURE
A venerable site, and having been created in 1995, was the first major online resource for images of Medieval Art. This glossary never goes out of style.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ISLAMIC CALLIGRAPHY
“This Bibliography should represent a starting point for all enquiries concerning Ottoman Calligraphy development over the centuries or any conceivable aspect of calligraphic art, whether from the academic historian, student, the amateur or the general enquirer. The Bibliography is hosted by Worldcat, please click on the reference links in list.”

global medieval art

ART AND ARCHITECTURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES
“Exploring a Connected World”

DIGITAL SCRIPTORIUM
“Digital Scriptorium (DS) is a growing consortium of North American institutions with collections of global premodern manuscripts. DS is dedicated to building an online national union catalog built on Linked Open Data technologies and practices for premodern manuscripts in US collections. “
In other words, search among over 12,000 records across 35 different institutions/collections.

GLOBAL MIDDLE AGES PROJECT
“Welcome to the Global Middle Ages Project—G-MAP—an ambitious effort by an international collaboration of scholars to see the world whole, c. 500 to 1500 CE, to deliver the stories of lives, objects, and actions in dynamic relationship and change across deep time.”

INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF MEDIEVAL ART
Lists of image databases, archives, and catalogues.

INDEX OF MEDIEVAL ART
(now available without a subscription)

MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS ON THE WEB
A list like this one, compiled over many years by Siân Echard, Department of English Language and Literatures, University of British Columbia.

curated manuscript collections and tools

BASIRA
“BASIRA (Books as Symbols in Renaissance Art) is a new, open-access online database of representations of books and other textual documents in the figurative arts between approximately 1300 and 1600 CE, the period encompassing the advent of print culture in Europe and its neighboring regions.”

BIBLISSIMA
“The Biblissima Portal offers unique and simple access to a set of digital data on the history of the transmission of texts produced from Antiquity to the Renaissance in the East as in the West, whatever the medium and whatever either the language.”

BIBLISSIMA IIF
“This website provides an experimental cross-collections search and discovery environment for IIIF-compliant manuscripts and rare books dated before 1800.”
In other words, search once and get results from manuscripts held by dozens of institutions. A potential goldmine.

CODECS
Collaborative Online Database and e-Resources for Celtic Studies

DMMapp
“Welcome to the DMMapp, an independent initiative dedicated to simplifying access to digitized medieval manuscripts. Our mission is to bring the beauty and richness of medieval manuscripts to everyone, by collecting and sharing links to libraries with digitized collections from around the world.”

E-CODICES
Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland
“The goal of e-codices is to provide free access to all medieval and a selection of modern manuscripts of Switzerland by means of a virtual library. At the moment, the virtual library contains 2827 manuscripts from 98 different collections. The virtual library will be continuously updated and extended.”

FRAGMENTARIUM
Laboratory for Medieval Manuscript Fragments
“Fragmentarium enables libraries, collectors, researchers and students to publish images of medieval manuscript fragments, allowing them to catalogue, describe, transcribe, assemble and re-use them.”

GETTY RESEARCH PORTAL
Themed collections gathered from the Getty’s collections.

THE INTERNATIONAL COLLECTION OF DIGITIZED HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS
An aggregation of Hebrew mss from around the world. Searchable, including by theme.

IRISH SCRIPT ON SCREEN
“Established in 1999, ISOS is the largest digital repository of Irish manuscripts. Over 450 manuscripts digitised.”

MANUSCRIPTS OF THE ISLAMIC WORLD
“Curated Selections & Collaborative Efforts at the Princeton University Library”

THE MEDIEVAL BESTIARY
Animals in the Middle Ages, particularly in mss. Continually updated.

MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS IN DUTCH COLLECTIONS
“This database contains descriptions of all medieval western manuscripts up to c. 1550 written in Latin script and preserved in public and semi-public collections in the Netherlands. These include the collections of libraries, museums, archives, collections of monastic orders and some private institutions open to researchers.”

METAscripta
“A digital workspace for interactive scholarship about Vatican manuscripts.”

OGHAM IN 3D PROJECT
“The ultimate aim of the Ogham in 3D project is to digitise and record in 3d as many as possible of the approximately four hundred surviving Ogham stones and to make the resulting 3D models freely available on this website as part of a multi-disciplinary digital corpus of Ogham stones.”

ROMAN DE LA ROSE DIGITAL LIBRARY
“The goal of the Roman de la Rose Digital Library is to create an online library of all manuscripts containing the 13th-century poem Roman de la Rose.”

GLAM (gallery, library, archive, museum) digitized manuscripts

AGA KHAN MUSEUM
“The Aga Khan Museum presents and collects art from historically significant Muslim civilizations as well as contemporary Muslim communities and diasporas around the world.”

BIBLIOTECA NACIONAL DE ESPAÑA
“Welcome to the freely accessible portal to the Library’s digital collections”

BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE DE FRANCE archive of manuscripts
“Searchable database of the manuscripts held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in the Departement des Manuscrits and the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, some with links to digitized versions of the manuscripts.”

BODLEIAN LIBRARY ONLINE CATALOGUES OF MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS
“This catalogue provides descriptions of all known Western medieval manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, and of medieval manuscripts in selected Oxford colleges.”

BRITISH LIBRARY MANUSCRIPTS
“Use this website to view digitised copies of manuscripts and archives in the British Library’s collections, with descriptions of their contents.”

CORSAIR
The Morgan Library and Museum
“CORSAIR is a single database providing unified access to over 330,000 records for medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, rare and reference books, literary and historical manuscripts, music scores, ancient seals and tablets, drawings, prints, and other art objects. Records continue to be added for new acquisitions.”

DAVID COLLECTION
“The David Collection is an exclusive museum in the heart of Copenhagen. Here you can find one of the most comprehensive collections of Islamic art in the Western world, a fine selection of European 18th-century art and a smaller, but exquisite, representation of Danish early modern painting, sculpture and ceramics.”

DIGITAL BODLEIAN
“Discover over a million images of rare books, manuscripts, and other treasures from the Bodleian Libraries and Oxford college libraries.”

DIGITAL LIBRARY MECKLENBURG-VORPOMMERN
“The Digital Library Mecklenburg-Vorpommern presents cross-disciplinary collections from archives, libraries, museums and universities in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It makes these cultural-historically significant sources available free of charge for private and academic use.”

DIGITAL VATICAN LIBRARY
“DigiVatLib is a digital library service. It provides free access to the Vatican Library’s digitized collections: manuscripts, incunabula, archival materials and inventories as well as graphic materials, coins and medals, printed materials (special projects).”

DUMBARTON OAKS RESEARCH LIBRARY AND COLLECTION
“Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection supports research and learning internationally in Byzantine, Garden and Landscape, and Pre-Columbian studies”

FORNSALEN: GOTLAND HISTORICAL MUSEUM
“Gotland’s museum of cultural history is called ‘Fornsalen’ (lit. ‘Hall of Antiquities’) in Swedish.”

HILL MUSEUM & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY
“HMML Reading Room (vhmml.org) offers resources for the study of manuscripts and currently features manuscript cultures from Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. The site houses high-resolution images of manuscripts, many of them digitized as part of the global mission of the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library (HMML), Collegeville, MN, to preserve and share important, endangered, and inaccessible manuscript collections through digital photography, archiving, and cataloging. It also contains descriptions of manuscripts from HMML’s legacy microfilm collection, with scans of some of these films.”

THE HUNTINGTON
“The Huntington Art Museum focuses on two distinct areas — European art from the 15th to the early 20th century, and American art from the colonial period to the present. … The Art Museum features British, European, American, and Asian art spanning more than 500 years and includes more than 45,000 objects.”

ILLUMINATED: MANUSCRIPTS IN THE MAKING
“ILLUMINATED brings to life the finest illuminated manuscripts preserved at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.”
Really nice interface that talks about provenance, materials, techniques.

THE J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM
“The J. Paul Getty Museum seeks to inspire curiosity about, and enjoyment and understanding of, the visual arts by collecting, conserving, exhibiting and interpreting works of art of outstanding quality and historical importance.”

THE KISLAK CENTER FOR SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, RARE BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS (PENN LIBRARIES)
“With over 300,000 printed books and codices and over 14,000 linear feet of modern manuscripts, the Kislak Center’s collections span the ancient world to the contemporary era and are global in scope.”

LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)
“LACMA is the largest art museum in the western United States, with a collection of nearly 152,000 objects that illuminate 6,000 years of artistic expression across the globe”

MANDRAGORE
“An iconographic base for the BnF Manuscripts.”
Bibliothèque nationale de France. Includes keyword search, useful for finding specific elements in illuminated manuscripts.

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
“The Met presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy.”

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ASIAN ART
“National Museum of Asian Art Library’s online catalogue has been merged with the Smithsonian Libraries catalogue”

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF DENMARK
“a collection of museums all over the country”

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY DIGITAL COLLECTIONS
“Explore items digitized from The New York Public Library’s collections.”

UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS
“Explore the University of St Andrews’ photographs, artworks, objects, manuscripts, muniments and digitised rare books.”

TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
“Virtual Trinity Library is opening up the unique and distinct collections of the Library of Trinity College Dublin, catalysing research and safeguarding the iconic treasures of the Library of Trinity College Dublin for generations to come. This ambitious, multi-year initiative is to catalogue, conserve, digitise and research these unique collections of national importance making them accessible to a global audience, from schoolchildren to scholars.”

THOMAS FISHER RARE BOOK LIBRARY
“The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library houses the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections and the University of Toronto Archives.”

THE WALTERS ART MUSEUM
“The Walters Art Museum is among America’s most distinctive museums, forging connections between people and art from cultures around the world and spanning seven millennia. Through its collections, exhibitions, and education programs, the Walters engages the City of Baltimore, Maryland, and audiences across the globe.”

virtual exhibitions

CARAVANS OF GOLD, FRAGMENTS IN TIME
“Art, Culture, and Exchange Across Medieval Africa”
“Caravans of Gold calls on what archaeologists have termed “the archaeological imagination”—the act of recapturing the past through surviving traces—to present a critical rethinking of the medieval period.”

HIDDEN STORIES: BOOKS ALONG THE SILK ROADS
“This website is a digital companion and in-depth complement to Hidden Stories: Books Along the Silk Roads, on display at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto from October 9, 2021 to February 27, 2022.”
A full site is intended to be launched in November 2023.

PATHWAYS TO PARADISE: MEDIEVAL INDIA AND EUROPE

SAHEL: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara
Find the exhibition guide here.

THE SOGDIANS: INFLUENCERS ON THE SILK ROADS

TRAVERSING THE GLOBE THROUGH ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS

digital humanities tools

ARIES
“An interactive image manipulation system that enables the exploration and organization of fine digital art.”

IIIF (read as “triple-eye-eff)
“IIIF is a set of open standards for delivering high-quality, attributed digital objects online at scale. It’s also an international community developing and implementing the IIIF APIs. IIIF is backed by a consortium of leading cultural institutions.”
A searchable, standardized method of digital image delivery, increasingly utilized throughout the sites listed above. Sites such as Biblissima offer searches of multiple repositories at once.

EUROPEANA
“Discover Europe’s digital cultural heritage. Search, save and share art, books, films and music from thousands of cultural institutions.”

SEAROBEND
“Linked Metadata For English-Language Texts, 1000–1300”
A digitial humanities project with implications for greater Old English context.

TROPY
“Take control of your research photos with Tropy, a tool that shortens the path from finding archival sources to writing about them. Spend more time using your research photos, and less time hunting for them.”
An invaluable program for helping view and organize all of your visual research.