Arkyves is both a unique database of images and texts and a meeting place for everyone who wants to study imagery and publish about it. All visual and textual sources are made accessible with the help of the multilingual vocabulary for cultural content of the
Iconclass system. By using this system it has been made possible to find and retrieve images and texts from various sources on a specific topic.
By using
Arkyves it is currently possible to access almost 900.000 images, texts, etc. from libraries and museums in many countries among them the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD), the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, and the university libraries of Milan, Utrecht and Glasgow . More collections will follow in the near future. The database contains a link to the images which are available in open access.
Arkyves is both a research tool for art historians and book historians, as well as a tool to facilitate the process of describing images.
Some of Arkyves’ features:
• Completely rewritten front-end: responsive design in a modern web application.
• New user interface: clear and easy to use, centered around pre-selected themes.
• Iconclass controlled vocabulary for improved powerful retrieval options.
• Iconclass searches currently possible in 9 different languages (English, Dutch, French, German, Finnish, Polish, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese)
• For partners: possibility to create dedicated Iconclass retrieval browsers, for easy inclusion in their website.
• Arkyves is now open as a platform to assist institutions and individual researchers to catalogue and publish their own datasets of images in hybrid Open Access.
• Updated back-end search, based on industry-leading ElasticSearch.
Partner Institutions:
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek; Biblia Sacra project; Bibliothèques Virtuelles Humanistes; Byvanck Illuminated Manuscript project; Cardiff University; Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden; Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington; Getty Research Institute & Provenance Index; Glasgow University Library; Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel; Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague; The Leiden Collection, New York; Museum Meermanno; RKD, Netherlands Institute for Art History; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig; University Library, Amsterdam; University Library, Utrecht; University of Milan, Marengo; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
To enquire about this product, or arrange a free 30-day institutional trial, please contact our Sales Department at
sales-nl@brill.com (outside the Americas) or
sales-us@brill.com (the Americas).
1) Arkyves demo:
Product information Information about 'Arkyves, Reference Tool for the History of Culture': what is it, how can you use it, the different tools, future developments, and more.
Watch it here.
2) Arkyves demo:
Searching for content in Arkyves Examples of the different kinds of search possibilities in Arkyves.
Watch it here.
Hans Brandhorst, art historian (Leiden University), has published on illuminated manuscripts, emblems and devices, iconography and classification, and digital humanities. Editor of the
Iconclass system and
Arkyves.
Etienne Posthumus, software developer specialising in digital humanities, metadata and classification systems. He is the developer of the
Iconclass browser and
Arkyves.