The Drawings of the Florentine Painters: From Print Catalog to Linked Open Data

The Drawings of The Florentine Painters project created the first online database of Florentine Renaissance drawings by applying Linked Open Data (LOD) techniques to a foundational text of the same name, first published by Bernard Berenson in 1903 (revised and expanded editions, 1938 and 1961). The goal was to make Berenson’s catalog information—still an essential information resource today—available in a machine­readable format, allowing researchers to access the source content through open data services. This paper provides a technical overview of the methods and processes applied in the conversion of Berenson’s catalog to LOD using the CIDOC­CRM ontology; it also discusses the different phases of the project, focusing on the challenges and issues of data transformation and publishing. The project was funded by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and organized by Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. Catalog: http://florentinedrawings.itatti.harvard.edu Data Endpoint: http://data.itatti.harvard.ed

Florentine Renaissance Drawings: A Linked Catalog for the Semantic Web

The Drawings of the Florentine Painters by Bernard Berenson has been an essential source for art historians since it first appeared in 1903 and remains so today. Though many catalogs of drawings exist for individual collections and artists, Berenson’s study is the only resource that includes examples from across the Western world by nearly seventy Florentine painters, from Taddeo Gaddi in the fourteenth century through Bronzino in the sixteenth. The Florentine Renaissance Drawings project makes Berenson’s invaluable catalog information available in a machine­readable format. As with most projects that transform textual art documentation into digital editions, the authors faced challenges in maintaining a balance between making data scalable and preserving the nuances of the original text. This study demonstrates how Linked Open Data (LOD) technology allows one to maintain the complexity of source data while allowing for standardization of terms and concepts

The Drawings of the Florentine Painters: From Print Catalog to Linked Open Data

The Drawings of The Florentine Painters project created the first online database of Florentine Renaissance drawings by applying Linked Open Data (LOD) techniques to a foundational text of the same name, first published by Bernard Berenson in 1903 (revised and expanded editions, 1938 and 1961). The goal was to make Berenson’s catalog information—still an essential information resource today—available in a machine-readable format, allowing researchers to access the source content through open data services. This paper provides a technical overview of the methods and processes applied in the conversion of Berenson’s catalog to LOD using the CIDOC-CRM ontology; it also discusses the different phases of the project, focusing on the challenges and issues of data transformation and publishing. The project was funded by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and organized by Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. Catalog: http://florentinedrawings.itatti.harvard.edu Data Endpoint: http://data.itatti.harvard.ed