 |
 |
Error during command authentication.
Error - unable to initiate communication with LISTSERV (errno=10061, phase=CONNECT, target=127.0.0.1:2306). The server is probably not started.
Mellon Foundation Funds Cataloguing and Digitization of Princeton’s Medieval Manuscripts October 16, 2001. Princeton University’s Index of Christian Art has received a major grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to complete a descriptive catalogue of the University’s extensive collection of Western medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and to digitize and classify the manuscripts’ images in the online database at the Index of Christian Art. The grant, a total of $450,000 over three years, has been made under the Foundation’s Scholarly Communication Program. Through the grant, scholars will have significantly better access to Princeton’s manuscript collections, including the ability to conduct digital searches of the manuscripts’ images. The proposed project will complement a similar project now underway with the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. The Index will create searchable entries that will include digital images and detailed descriptive classifications for all of the Princeton manuscripts. In addition, a descriptive print catalogue of the manuscripts will be completed and published. Karin Trainer, Princeton University Librarian, said she welcomes the opportunity collaborate with the Index and to make the University’s rich collections more accessible. Colum Hourihane, Director of the Index, agreed, and said that having Princeton’s own manuscripts fully represented in the Index was a milestone for the Index and for scholarship. Princeton’s medieval and Renaissance manuscript collections span some ten centuries of Western illumination, from the fifth to the sixteenth centuries, and include many priceless treasures. The collection is especially renowned for its fourteenth and fifteenth century holdings, most of which have never before been either catalogued or photographed. Of the five hundred manuscripts in the Princeton collection, over two hundred have miniature paintings and illustrations that will become part of the Index’s digital catalogue. The Index of Christian Art at Princeton University is the world’s largest and oldest database of Western medieval art. A treasured art historical resource, it has served students, the general public, and the most advanced scholars for the last eighty years. The Index’s extensive photo and digital catalogue covers the subject matter of over 200,000 works of Western art from the early apostolic period to 1500 AD with analytic entries classified under 26,000 specially created subject headings. Each year several thousand scholars use the Index, either visiting it in person or on-line. Both the Princeton and Morgan manuscript projects address the Index’s long-term mission to collaborate with major medieval repositories throughout North America and Europe to catalogue and digitize important resources for scholarship. Adding searchable data and images from the University’s holdings to the Index’s database will enable scholars to study images in the collection within wider artistic contexts, making it possible, for example, to do comparative studies and to trace influences. Scholars at remote sites will be able to access comprehensive descriptions and high-quality images of illuminated manuscripts without the expense of a site visit to Princeton or the delay and cost involved in requesting a reproduction. Providing remote access to good quality images from one of Princeton’s most heavily used yet most fragile collections will also aid in its preservation. > __________________________________________________________________ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] Administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at: [log in to unmask]