Foto Marburg, Philipps University Marburg
Work to digitise a second part of the DFG Project Series “Digital Portrait Index of Print Graphic Images of the Early Modern Period” is under way.
Spearheaded by Deutsches Dokumentationszentrum für Kunstgeschichte – Bildarchiv Marburg (The German Documentation Centre for Art History – Image Archives Marburg), the project will see more than 200,000 portrait engravings from four centuries digitised and made available online. Digitisation of selected collections will be carried out in two parts by CD-LAB Gartner, Nürnberg and CDS Gromke e.K., Leipzig. Following the successful completion of the first part, portrait engravings from seven institutions will now be digitised as part of the second series.
The highest quality demands and a very tight time-frame require a high degree of logistics planning, and some of the portfolios will be digitised at the site of the collection.
A five-stage format sorting procedure and a separate processing of large sizes ensure that the predetermined DFG parameters can be exceeded. Colour defects and artefacts the fine lines that make up the engraving and which inevitably appear during digitisation, are avoided by using a 4-shot capturing technique. The intricacies of the line drawings are clearly visible even when images are significantly enlarged.
During digitisation, sheet and plate dimensions as well as the inventory number will be transferred to a cross-reference list. The scans are then made available during the final step of the process.
As part of the project’s first part, CDS Gromke e.K. / CD-LAB Gartner produced 47,000 scans. Even more collections are now to follow in the second part
- Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig (Leipzig University Library),
- Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz (National Library Berlin – Prussian Cultural History),
- Kunstsammlungen Veste Coburg (The art collections of Veste Coburg),
- LWL-Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Münster (Münster State Museum of Art and Cultural History),
- Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg (Nürnberg Germanic National Museum),
- Graphische Sammlungen München (Munich graphic collections) and
- Gleimhaus Halberstadt.
In addition, collections from
- Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Frankfurt am Main (German National Library, Frankfurt am Main),
- Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Wien (Austrian National Library, Vienna) and
- Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel (Herzog August Library, Wolfenbüttel)
will also be digitised and delivered according to other technical specifications.
More information on the project and the online database here www.portraitindex.de.
Image: François Langlois: Portrait Charles I., King of England (1600-1649), (by Anthonis van Dyck). Copper engraving, 40.5 x 27.7 cm, Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig, Inv. Nr. 8/174.