From Parchment to Pixel:Digitizing Medieval Manuscripts
at the Walters Art Museum
Dr. Lynley Anne Herbert
Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books, Walters Art Museum
The Walters Art MuseumManuscripts & Rare Books
• 923 illuminated and illustrated medieval and Islamic manuscripts, both religious and secular in nature
• Second most significant collection in the Western Hemisphere
• A collection of exceptional quality, containing consummate works of art
Projects
• Islamic Digital Resource • (2008-2010): • 128 Islamic codices and 60 loose leaves
• Parchment to Pixel (2010-2012): • 105 English, Dutch, German, Byzantine, Armenian,
Spanish, Russian, and Ethiopian codices
• Imaging the Hours (2012-2015): • 112 Flemish codices, including 80 books of hours
• Generously funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities
• All data released on a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license
How can you see the images?
• The Digital Walters• Walters Art Museum Web site• Flickr• Twitter• UNESCO World Digital Library• Academic databases: ArtSTOR,
Digital Scriptorium, Index of Christian Art
What is the impact?
Why do this?
Copyright Randy Asplund, www.randyasplund.com