The Census of Antique Works of Art and Archi­tec­ture Known in the Renais­sance began in 1946 as an idea emer­ging in corre­spon­dence between Richard Kraut­heimer in New York and Fritz Saxl in London. Today, it is connected to the Depart­ment of Art and Visual History at Humboldt-Univer­sität zu Berlin. The project is curr­ently led by Kath­leen Chris­tian, Professor of Early Modern Art History, and a staff of post­docs and student assistants.

The  Census data­base is an online coll­ec­tion of ancient monu­ments (such as sculp­tures, coins, reliefs, archi­tec­tural struc­tures) and of texts and images from the post-clas­sical era that respond to this antique mate­rial culture. The two primary cate­go­ries of records are “Antique Monu­ment” and “Post­clas­sical Work.” With regard to post­clas­sical works, the focus lies on works created between 1400 and 1600.

The Census is a central resource for rese­ar­chers and for anyone inte­rested in topics of clas­sical recep­tion and the after­life of anti­quity  Since its incep­tion, the project has assem­bled a vast coll­ec­tion of images and biblio­gra­phic refe­rences, at first using index cards and photo­graphs. Already in the early 1980s the Census was then digi­tized, and it is now acces­sible in the form of an online data­base.

More infor­ma­tion about the history of the Census data­base is gathered in an online exhi­bi­tion on the topic.

In 1946, when Richard Kraut­heimer and Fritz Saxl first formu­lated the idea of the Census, their goal was to replace a “lack of specific infor­ma­tion regar­ding the antique mate­rial acces­sible to Renais­sance scho­lars and artists” with a precise cata­logue of lite­rary and picto­rial sources refer­ring to or describing antique works of art extant in the Renais­sance. When the project began, it followed a metho­do­lo­gical approach that had been preva­lent since the nine­te­enth century in the sphere of clas­sical archaeo­logy: this was the method major figures such as Rodolfo Lanciani or Chris­tian Hülsen had used to cata­logue Renais­sance sketch­books and put Renais­sance drawings in one-to-one rela­ti­onships with antique works of art. While this method gave shape to the Census project and its cata­lo­guing system, in current scho­lar­ship repre­sen­ta­tions of and crea­tive responses to anti­qui­ties are unders­tood in more diverse and subtle ways. Archaeo­lo­gists and art histo­rians are aware that post­clas­sical texts and works of art present in the Census can scar­cely be reduced to the status of “docu­ments” of the appearance, loca­tion or condi­tion of antiquities.

As rese­arch about the recep­tion of anti­quity expands, the Census still remains a precious resource that extends beyond its original aims. It is a tool that allows rese­ar­chers to probe a topic of crucial importance: the anti­qui­ties that fasci­nated Early Modern artists, huma­nists and patrons and inspired an extra­or­di­nary variety of new inven­tions. The Census is, indeed, one of the best tools for working with mate­rial legacy of anti­quity in the Early Modern era, a visual culture which now largely been lost with the dispersal of coll­ec­tions and the move­ment of objects into modern-day museums.  Decades of pains­ta­king rese­arch that gave shape to the Census data­base make it one of the best resources rese­ar­chers can use to access vanished, yet extra­or­di­na­rily signi­fi­cant mate­rial contexts for the Early Modern recep­tion and reinter­pre­ta­tion of antiquity.

As a long­stan­ding project that has engaged major insti­tu­tional part­ners over its life­time (inclu­ding NYU, the Warburg Insti­tute, the Getty and the Hertziana), the Census is intert­wined with the history of these insti­tu­tions, and with the history of the disci­plines of archaeo­logy and art history. The Census was one of the first art-histo­rical coll­ec­tions to be digi­tized (in the early 1980s), and the project has bridged many decades of tech­no­lo­gical change, from the analogue, to the digital, to the internet ages. 

Aligned with the latest stan­dards and tech­no­lo­gies of digital huma­ni­ties, parti­cu­larly through its member­ship in CORDH (Consortium for Open Rese­arch Data in the Huma­ni­ties), the Census now aims to take a leading role in deve­lo­ping new digital methods for sharing and analy­sing huma­ni­ties data. The data­base itself aims to repre­sent the subt­le­ties of a complex field using an open and expan­dable resource. For a more detailed discus­sion of these recent changes, see the “Linked Open Data” FAQs below.

The cate­gory “Antique Monu­ments” is prima­rily concerned with ancient statues, buil­dings and coins, but also includes inscrip­tions, mosaics, and paintings.

The cate­gory “Post­clas­sical Works” is mostly related to prints, drawings, and texts such as guide­books. Other types of Post­clas­sical Works include pain­tings, medals, bronze statu­ettes as well as invent­ories of coll­ec­tions. Most of these works were created in Western Europe, parti­cu­larly Italy, between the years 1400 and 1600.

The other object types in the data­base (Person, Biblio­graphy, Style, Period, Loca­tion, and Image) provide supple­men­tary infor­ma­tion about Antique Monu­ments and Post­clas­sical Works.

Prima­rily, the infor­ma­tion in the Census data­base recon­s­tructs rela­ti­onships between Antique Monu­ments and Post­clas­sical Works. The classic example is a juxta­po­si­tion of the antique Apollo Belve­dere now in the Vatican with a drawing of this statue in the sixte­enth-century Cambridge Sketch­book. Thou­sands of similar rela­ti­onships linking works of antique art and archi­tec­ture with Early Modern artistic repre­sen­ta­tions and textual descrip­tions of anti­qui­ties are traced by the Census data­base. These rela­ti­onships map instances of the recep­tion of antique mate­rial culture as well as the history of the post­clas­sical survival of antique ruins and remains.  Within the proven­ance histo­ries that are found in the records for Antique Monu­ments, one can follow the coll­ec­ting histo­ries of ancient statues, inscrip­tions and other antique art works.

The Census project was in its first decades prima­rily concerned with the period 1400–1530 and with textual descrip­tions of anti­qui­ties and drawings after antique sculp­ture. In the 1980s, it expanded to encom­pass the period 1400–1600 and to include the recep­tion of antique architecture.

In addi­tion to the records concer­ning these core topic of the Census data­base, colla­bo­ra­ting projects have also added records that relate to earlier and later histo­rical periods. Between c. 2009–2015, records related to medieval works of art were entered into the data­base in coope­ra­tion with the project Corpus Medii Aevi.

Between c. 2009–2016, records related to the recep­tion of anti­quity by Johann Joachim Winckel­mann and other anti­qua­rians of his time were added by the project Corpus Winckel­mann.

Recently, the Census data­base has expanded to include mate­rial contri­buted by the project Jacopo Strada’s Magnum ac Novum Opus: A Sixte­enth-Century Numis­matic Corpus. Between 2015 and 2022, drawings of Strada’s Magnum ac novum opus and the antique coins related to these were added to the Census. 

Curr­ently, work is underway to expand the Census data­base with records contri­buted by the project Histo­rical Memory, Anti­qua­rian Culture, Artistic Patro­nage: Social Iden­ti­ties in the Centres of Southern Italy, which is concerned with anti­qui­ties in Southern Italy during the Early Modern era. 

When sear­ching the Census data­base, users can use the advanced search or the filter to search by “Contri­bu­ting Project’ to show records added by:

Corpus Medii Aevi

Corpus Winckel­mann

HistArtAntSI: Histo­rical Memory, Anti­qua­rian Culture, Artistic Patro­nage: Social Iden­ti­ties in the Centres of Southern Italy

Strada: Jacopo Strada’s Magnum ac Novum Opus: A Sixte­enth-Century Numis­matic Corpus

Partner projects have contri­buted to the Census over the years and greatly expanded the contents of the data­base. In the new soft­ware system laun­ched in March, 2023, data added by these projects has become easier to iden­tify. It is possible, for example, to search for data contri­buted by the project “Jacopo Stradas Magnum ac Novum Opus: Ein numis­ma­ti­sches Corpus des 16. Jahr­hun­derts” by using the filter, or by using the advanced search tool to search for “Contri­bu­ting Project”→“Strada”.

Please get in touch (census [dot] ikb [at] hu-berlin [dot] de) if you are inte­rested in adding data from a related project to the Census database.

The search func­tions have changed signi­fi­cantly: while users of the previous version of the data­base first had to choose between “Antique Monu­ments” and “Post-Antique Docu­ments” when making search queries, the new inter­face now has a free-text bar which allows them to search the enti­rety of data­base entries. 

Within the new inter­face, the vast image coll­ec­tion of the Census takes center stage. Users can view search results as images of multiple objects and artworks, and no longer have to open records one-by-one to access images.

As was the case in the previous version, the user account func­tion enables the crea­tion of personal coll­ec­tions, in which users can save records for future refe­rence. In the new data­base, however, when­ever copy­right allows it is also possible to down­load rele­vant images. In the future the Census will also be adding PDFs of biblio­gra­phic lite­ra­ture or other files which, when out of copy­right, will be available for download.

Another change in the new inter­face is that the object type previously referred to as “Post-Antique Docu­ments” is now called “Post­clas­sical Works.” The new termi­no­logy reflects the comple­xity of post-clas­sical texts and works of art them­selves, as well as the comple­xity of their rela­ti­onships with antique mate­rial culture. The means of trans­mis­sion between the physical remains of anti­quity and post-clas­sical works of art are far from straight­for­ward. These rela­ti­onships are no longer defined in the Census data­base through the frame­work of “docu­men­ta­tion,” allo­wing users to grapple instead with the subtle ways in which Post­clas­sical texts and images relate to or respond to the antique. 

In the new inter­face, records more clearly indi­cate uncer­tainty about dates, loca­tions, and author­ship. There is also greater oppor­tu­nity to model in the data­base varied opinions about these topics.  New fields in the data model can define the era in which opinions about the dates, authors and loca­tions of antique monu­ments origi­nated: in the Early Modern period, or in current scho­lar­ship. These features allow the Census data­base to model diverse opinions about objects and texts that might have been considered antique in the Early Modern era, but are not considered antique in current scholarship.

The Census data­base has also been seman­ti­cally modelled, and other Linked Open Data features that are being intro­duced and imple­mented (see the FAQs below). 

At the moment the map view, which was available as part of the old data­base inter­face, is curr­ently not available.

There are many ways to search the data­base using the free text search bar, the Advanced Search func­tion, and filters. Some methods tend to work better for diffe­rent types of sear­ches (for example, when sear­ching for text, or when sear­ching for images).  Please see below for tech­ni­ques, tips, and recommendations.

1. SOURCES

SOURCES: Next to the free search bar is a button labelled ‘Sources.” Here one can select the object types one wishes to search. Users can search for these object types, singly or in combi­na­tion. It is recom­mended, however, that users keep only the object types “Antique Monu­ment” and “Post­clas­sical Work” checked, then use the filters or the Advanced Search to narrow down the results. Although it may seem intui­tive to search for “Image,” this cate­gory only contains infor­ma­tion about image files. Sear­ching for both Antique Monu­ments and Post­clas­sical Works allows users to find all images in the data­base, as well as all infor­ma­tion regar­ding biblio­graphy, period, style, person and location.

Under­neath the object types is a pool called “Census” which contains all the records of the Census data­base. Make sure this box is always checked, other­wise the contents of the data­base cannot be searched. 

2. SEARCH BAR

SEARCH BAR: Type keywords directly into the search bar to gene­rate results. By default, when two search terms are entered in the full-text search bar, they are linked by the operator “AND,” so that both terms must ther­e­fore be present in the resul­ting records. 

You can use the opera­tors AND, NOT, OR and paren­theses for more complex combi­na­tions of search terms.

Examples of free text searches:

#219823: inser­ting a CensusID in the search bar, with the # sign before the number, brings up the record iden­ti­fied by this CensusID, the Vatican Laocoön.  

Asper­tini + sarco­phagus : this search brings up results in which the terms “Asper­tini” and “sarco­phagus” are both present. 

Asper­tini sarco­phagus: this search yields the same results as Asper­tini + sarcophagus

“Hercules Farnese:” since there are quota­tion marks around the a two-word phrase, the results that appear will be rele­vant to the statue of Hercules Farnese in Naples, rather than all records related both to Hercules and to the Farnese.

(Zuccari Laocoon) — Getty: this search brings up CensusID #10005521, a drawing in the Uffizi by Federico Zuccari of his brother Taddeo drawing the Laocoon in the Belve­dere. A similar drawing of this subject in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Census ID #10003642) is not included in the results (note that ente­ring the minus symbol in the search bar should produce the word NOT). 

We recom­mend sear­ching for one or two terms and then using the filters or Advanced Search to narrow down your results. For users who already have very specific infor­ma­tion they wish to search for (such as an inven­tory number), starting with the Advanced Search may be the most conve­nient option (see below).

Important tip: the names of cities in the Census are not trans­lated into English but are kept in local languages.  Thus if you are sear­ching for a work of art in Naples, type “Napoli” in the search bar. Users may get better results by using the Advanced Search, or by narro­wing down results by loca­tion using the filters.

3. FILTER

FILTER: You can use the filters visible on the left-hand side of the screen to narrow down search results.

While sear­ching Antique Monu­ments and Post­clas­sical Works for “sarco­phagus” in the search bar results in thou­sands of records, these can be filtered, for example, by selec­ting only Antique Monu­ments or Post­clas­sical Works.  You can continue to narrow down the search results, for example by acti­vating the “Current Loca­tion” filter until you find a parti­cular city or museum.  Filte­ring by “Crea­tion / Actors Involved in Crea­tion / Actor” narrows down the results to works by a parti­cular artists or author, for example Amico Asper­tini or Ulisse Aldrovandi.

4. ADVANCED SEARCH

Advanced Search provides a compre­hen­sive and exact tool for sear­ching the Census data­base. Advanced Search allows you to search by selec­ting fields that are already present in the data­base, and allows you to specify that search terms must appear in speci­fied fields. It is ther­e­fore a more effi­cient and effec­tive way of sear­ching than by typing keywords in the free-text search bar. 

You can open the Advanced Search window by clicking on the small button located on the right-hand side of the search bar:

You can then search “All object types” or specific object types, depen­ding on which object types are selected in the “Sources” menu:

In the Advanced Search window, you can enter a CensusID directly, and here there is no need to enter the hastag (#) before the number. You can also enter a UUID (Univer­sally Unique Identifier).

In “All Object Types” mode, you can narrow the search for an Antique Monu­ment to records iden­ti­fied as ‘Main Antique Monu­ments,” that is, objects or buil­dings that are not parts of other monu­ments.  Opening up “Linked Object Types,” under­neath,  you can limit the search by Contri­bu­ting Project, or other fields.

In Advanced Search, we recom­mend selec­ting either “Antique Monu­ment” or “Post­clas­sical Work” in the upper left-hand corner of the window:

The para­me­ters you set in Advanced Search will appear in the search bar after you press the button “Apply to Search.” There, these search para­me­ters can be further combined with keywords. For example, you can use the Advanced Search to limit the results to a parti­cular Contri­bu­ting Project, then type in the word “Nero” in the search bar.

Under Parent entry, you can narrow down or expand your search results based on the place of these results in the struc­ture of the Census data:

Keeping in mind the hier­ar­chical struc­ture of the Census data in mind, you can select the follo­wing search criteria:

All without subor­di­nate level: selects only the lowest level of the hier­archy, such as the parts of a page or the parts of a column.

All with subor­di­nate level: selects all records that are super­or­di­nate to other records. These are not neces­s­a­rily the top-level entries in the hierarchy.

All without super­or­di­nate level: selects only the top-level level of the hier­archy, such as the Pantheon or the Codex Coburgensis.

All with super­or­di­nate level: selects all records that are subor­di­nate to other records. These records are not neces­s­a­rily the lowest-level entries in the hierarchy.

The check box for “all without super­or­di­nate level” is parti­cu­larly useful in narro­wing down sear­ches of complex Antique Monu­ments or Post­clas­sical Works (such as the Pantheon or the Codex Cobur­gensis). Checking this box helps you find your way quickly to the top-level record, which might other­wise be lost in results contai­ning nume­rous subor­di­nated records.

In an advanced search of Antique Monu­ments, you can insert keywords in nume­rous fields: these include inven­tory number (under “Iden­ti­fiers”), class, type, descrip­tive details, date of crea­tion, preser­va­tion history (inclu­ding resto­ra­tions), or proven­ance history. You can also search for Antique Monu­ments by Post­clas­sical Works related to them, or by the biblio­graphy that refers to them.

In an advanced search for Post­clas­sical Works, you can search by date of crea­tion, actors involved in crea­tion (such as artists or authors), or medium. You can also search for Post­clas­sical Works by the Antique Monu­ments related to them in the Census data­base, or by biblio­gra­phic references. 

Tip: A useful feature of Advanced Search is that it offers a conve­nient way of sear­ching Post­clas­sical Works for text strings. Using  the “Tran­scrip­tion” field of the Post­clas­sical Work object type you can search, for example, for a passage in the manu­scripts of Pirro Ligorio:

5. VIEW:

VIEW: Once you have narrowed down your search, select a view to examine the  results. You can have your results appear in three diffe­rent types of views.

Stan­dard View prio­ri­tizes images and is best for viewing works of art:

Table View includes all fields orga­nized in a row and is recom­mended for advanced users only:

You can adjust the settings for all three of these types of views by clicking on the button with three dots, for example if you would like to see up to 1,000 records at a time. In these settings, it is recom­mended to keep the button “Flat hier­archy” selected. If it is not selected, the results you are not be able to view records on the lowest level of the Census data’s hier­ar­chical struc­ture (see the FAQ on hier­archy and above under “advanced search” for more information):

6. DETAIL VIEW:

Once you have found a single record that you would like to explore, you are ready to examine it in “detail view.” Please see the FAQ about under­stan­ding detail views for further infor­ma­tion (What data is available in the “Post­clas­sical Work” records? and What data is available in the “Antique Monu­ment” records?)

See above, “How do I search the Census data­base,” at point 4.

See above, “How do I search the Census data­base,” at point 3.

To only receive results that contain multiple words in a specific order, put the desired phrase in quota­tion marks. For example, if you tick Antique Monu­ment as the option under Sources and enter “Hercules Farnese” in the searchbar, you will only receive the sculp­ture known under that name instead of all entries that contain either “Hercules” and “Farnese.”

CensusIDs are unique iden­ti­fiers atta­ched to every record in the Census data­base. When refe­ren­cing the data­base, please cite the rele­vant CensusID.

To search the data­base for a parti­cular CensusID,  type a # sign followed by the number directly in the searchbar (i.e. #12345). Note that the search will not work without the “#” sign. Another method for finding a record using a CensusID is to click on the “Advanced Search” button on the right of the search bar:

Enter the CensusID in the appro­priate field.  Do not use the “#” sign in this search field:

Many records in the Census data­base are orga­nised accor­ding to a hier­ar­chical tree struc­ture, so that certain top-level entries (the Pantheon, the Codex Cobur­gensis, or Ulisse Aldrovandi’s guide­book to Rome) contain within them subor­di­nate entries: the columns of the Pantheon are subor­di­nate to the Pantheon, and the parts of these columns are in turn subor­di­nate to the columns them­selves.  The indi­vi­dual pages of the Codex Cobur­gensis are subor­di­nate to the Codex as a whole, while specific parts of pages are subor­di­nate to whole pages.

The coffers of the ceiling of the Pantheon are thus modelled in this fashion:

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How to narrow down search results using the hier­ar­chical structure:

Using views: Under the search bar, users will find the filter followed by buttons which can be used to select three diffe­rent types of views: the stan­dard view which prio­ri­tises images, the text view and the table view. For each of these views, users can either select or deselect the button “flat hier­archy” acces­sible by clicking on the three dots to the right of the view setting buttons (see image below). When hier­archy is flat­tened by selec­ting this button, all levels of data, from the top of the tree to the bottom, are visible at once.  If flat hier­archy is desel­ected, viewers see the upper level of a hier­archy (records which have other records subor­di­nated to them).

Using Advanced Search: In Advanced Search under Parent entry, you can choose from four options to narrow down or expand your results:

All without subor­di­nate level: selects only the lowest level of the hier­archy, such as the parts of a page or the parts of a column.

All with subor­di­nate level: selects all records that are super­or­di­nate to other records. These are not neces­s­a­rily the top-level entries in the hierarchy.

All without super­or­di­nate level: selects only the top-level level of the hier­archy, such as the Pantheon or the Codex Coburgensis.

All with super­or­di­nate level: selects all records that are subor­di­nate to other records. These records are not neces­s­a­rily the lowest-level entries in the hierarchy.

The check box for “all without super­or­di­nate level” is parti­cu­larly useful in narro­wing down sear­ches of complex Antique Monu­ments or Post­clas­sical Works (such as the Pantheon or the Codex Cobur­gensis). Checking this box helps you find your way quickly to the top-level record, which might other­wise be lost in results contai­ning nume­rous subor­di­nated records.

In Detail view, you can access all images asso­ciated with a specific record. The image preview at the top of the record entry can be shown or hidden by clicking “Show/Hide Image Preview” in the top left of the image preview window, as is shown here:

On the top right of the image preview window are three further buttons:

Images with green ticks marked as “Available for Down­load” can be down­loaded in diffe­rent sizes, inclu­ding a full-size version. Click the first button in the row, “Down­load”.

To open full-screen view, click the second button in the row, “Open full-screen view.” Here you can view the image in its full reso­lu­tion and can zoom in. You can also scroll through the gallery to see other images displayed in the current search.

The third button with three dots provides a shortcut to new sear­ches based on the data in the record you are viewing. Here you can also access the record’s “Change History” where you can find infor­ma­tion on the history of the record itself.

The “Antique Monu­ment” and “Post­clas­sical Work” records contain the core data of the Census database. 

Antique Monu­ments:

Taking the top-level entry for the Pantheon as an example, one sees the hier­ar­chical struc­ture of the data shown in the left-hand column: the Pantheon is the top-level entry and is subdi­vided into many parts.

On the right column, images are shown on the top. You can see on the bottom left-hand corner of the image preview window that there are 18 images linked to these records; these can be viewed by clicking on the arrows in this box.  For more about viewing images, see the FAQ for “How can I zoom in on images and down­load them?”

The heading includes the primary name of the monu­ment, the object type (“Antique Monu­ment”) followed by the CensusID.

The Pantheon is clas­si­fied as a Main Antique Monument.

Under­neath are tabs contai­ning further details:

OVER­VIEW

DESCRIP­TION

HISTORY

RELA­TI­ONSHIPS

REFE­RENCES

IMAGES

These tabs open up to reveal detailed infor­ma­tion, which is explained by the info buttons located inside the fields.

In the footer, one finds meta­data such as the UUID of the record.

The “Antique Monu­ment” and “Post­clas­sical Work” records contain the core data of the Census database. 

Post­clas­sical Work:

Taking the top-level entry for the Codex Cobur­gensis as an example, one sees the hier­ar­chical struc­ture of the data shown in the left-hand column: the Codex itself is the top-level entry and is subdi­vided into parts.

On the right column, images are shown on the top. You can see on the bottom left-hand corner of the image preview window that there are 2 images linked to this record; these can be viewed by clicking on the arrows in this box.  For more about viewing images, see the FAQ for “How can I zoom in on images and down­load them?”

The heading includes the primary name of the monu­ment, the object type (“Post­clas­sical Work”) followed by the CensusID.

Under­neath are tabs contai­ning further details:

OVER­VIEW

DESCRIP­TION

TEXTS / TRANSCRIPTIONS

RELA­TI­ONSHIPS

REFE­RENCES

IMAGES

These tabs open up to reveal detailed infor­ma­tion, which is explained by the info buttons located inside the fields.

In the footer, one finds meta­data such as the UUID of the record.

The inter­face and the data­base content are only available in English. Tran­scrip­tions of written sources are, however, always given in the original language, as are also the names of cities and regions, i.e. the data­base uses “Roma” instead of “Rome.”

When refer­ring to records in the data­base, please quote the CensusID, the URL inclu­ding the CensusID, and the date of access. For example: CensusID 10187294, https://database.census.de/detail/10236645 (1 April 2023),

Images that are tagged with green check­marks and are free of copy­right rest­ric­tions are down­loa­dable and made freely available to users. 

All other images may be viewed inside the Census data­base but cannot be copied, repro­duced or reused by users. Users can find the sources of these images in the image record as well as copy­right infor­ma­tion. Unfort­u­na­tely, the Census cannot provide images to users that are not tagged with the green “available for down­load” checkmark.

The process of making the Census data FAIR, to the fullest extent that copy­right allows, is nearly complete.

In 2021–23, the data was trans­formed into semantic RDF data in colla­bo­ra­tion with Takin.solutions (George Bruseker and Denitsa Nenova). This trans­for­ma­tion will enable the regular export of data from the Census data­base to a repo­si­tory where it can be sear­ched or re-used by other rese­ar­chers. In the repo­si­tory, the Census data will be available as semantic data modeled accor­ding to the CDOC-CRM frame­work, in parti­cular to the frame­work of the SARI data models deve­loped by the Swiss Art Rese­arch Infra­struc­ture. The process of mode­ling Census data accor­ding to this reco­g­nised frame­work (deve­loped speci­fi­cally for art histo­rical data) and its export to a repo­si­tory where it can be sear­ched and re-used will trans­form the Census data into FAIR data, since for the first time it will be not only findable and acces­sible but also inter­ope­rable and reuseable. In the repo­si­tory, rese­ar­chers can also query the Census data using SPARQL, the query language of the semantic web.

We expect this repo­si­tory to be available in the near future.

Most of the images in the Census data­base are governed by copy­right laws and images will not be available on the new repo­si­tory. Images are however made available for down­load directly from the data­base when copy­right allows. Please refer to the image tag (the green check­mark) for infor­ma­tion concer­ning the copy­right of down­loa­dable images.

It is expected that in the future bilbio­graphy will also be made available when copy­right allows.

In 2021–2023, George Bruseker and Denitsa Nenova of Takin.solutions modelled the Census data with the semantic frame­work used most often for cultural heri­tage data, the CIDOC-CRM. More speci­fi­cally, they aligned the Census data with refe­rence data models created by Swiss Art Rese­arch Infra­struc­ture (SARI) in Zurich. The goal of this project was to create linked, open Census data and new possi­bi­li­ties for sear­ching, finding and using this data.

Bruseker and Nenova’s docu­men­ta­tion of the Census Semantic Data Models (CSDM) can be found here and an intro­duc­tion to the data models can be found here on the Census website.

In the last phase of the project, which is expected to be completed soon, Census semantic data will be exported to a repo­si­tory where it can be sear­ched using SPARQL queries, or re-used.

This feature is curr­ently being deve­loped and will be available soon.

IIIF has been enabled tech­ni­cally in the data­base and is planned to be released in the near future.

Census records have been parti­ally linked to iden­ti­fers from the follo­wing indices:

VIAF – Virtual Inter­na­tional Autho­rity File

GND – Gemein­same Norm­datei, Deut­sche Nationalbibliothek

iDAI,gazetteer – Place names defined by the Deut­sches Archäo­lo­gi­sches Institut

Plei­ades – Place names defined by the Plei­ades gazetteer

TGN – Getty Thesaurus of Geogra­phic Names 

ULAN – Getty Union List of Artist Names

Geonomes — Geogra­phical database

Wiki­data – Open know­ledge base

Norm data are curr­ently being deve­loped and expanded. 

The process of trans­for­ma­tion, as well as infor­ma­tion about the CIDOC-CRM models adopted by the Census, has been fully documented.

Please follow these links for further information:

Intro­duc­tion to the Census semantic data models on the Census website

Full descrip­tion of the Census data models on GitHub 

Full docu­men­ta­tion of the trans­for­ma­tion project by Takin.solutions on Zenodo

The part­ners in this project were:

George and Denitsa Nenova, Takin.solutions