Medieval Image Databases: Aspects of Cooperation and Exchange

Abstract

As medieval databases proliferate, so do divergences in approaches and aims. Data collectors will need to decide which related projects they will follow closely and with which collections they will offer to share data. Overall uniform standards may be an impossible goal. An ‘image database’ requires (1) a collection of images, (2) a collection of verbal descriptions, and (3) the connections between them both Image catalogues designed for art history purposes, often to cover specified collections, use standardized terminology to access iconographical content, but databases in other historical disciplines demand more information about context, more possibilities for statistical analysis, and a specialized terminology, often including both modern and archaic terms. Extensive historical and relational the sauri are required, and international standards may someday be formulated. In this database, designed to facilitate research on everyday life, we have made our verbal descriptions available to many institutions. We have begun developing a digital storage procedure for images allowing the ‘zooming’, and enhancing of digital images, lifting discrete components out of context, placing them more firmly into context, and comparing contexts in addition, the database management system ‘Kleio’ has helped us create context-sensitive models and structures. Iconographic study requires wide cooperation, but at the same time, the proprietary rights and the prerogatives of database builders need to be formulated.