Discovery and research of antiquity is one of keythemes of the
15th and 16th century. The antique works of art and architecture
are therefore a major source for renaissance artists. Long years
ago the CENSUS startet to collect the renaissance sources and combine
the material with the research of classical archeology.
The Census of Antique Works of Art and Architecture Known in the
Renaissance was founded in 1946 at the Warburg Institute in London.
It began as an index system, with antique monuments and their renaissance
documentation on index cards. In order to facilitate research queries
and to make all the information easily accessible it was decided
at the beginning of the 1980's, to transfer the project to an electronic
database. Up until then the project had focused on antique sculpture,
and now antique architecture was to be included. The project was
based at the Warburg Institute and the Bibliotheca Hertziana from
1981 and since April 1995 it has been at the Humboldt University
Berlin and is affiliated to the Kunstgeschichtliches Seminar as
a main focus of research.
The international board of the Census consists of the Directors
of the Warburg Institute, London, the Bibliotheca Hertziana (Max-Planck-Institut),
Rome, the Getty Information Institute and the Getty Center, Los
Angeles, and the Warburg-Haus, Hamburg. The Federal Ministry of
Education, Science, Research and Technology is a supporting member.
The Census contains the following visual sources: drawings, sketchbooks,
paintings, engravings, sculpture, medals, applied arts etc. Among
the written sources are inventories, guide books, lives of artists,
archival documents etc., many of which are exact transcriptions.
In addition, there is a detailed network of names-, dates- and location-references.
The Census is the electronic version of a Corpus. This Corpus is
subdivided into several main parts. The most important headers are
antique monuments, renaissance documents, and the name, location
and date authorities. All parts are linked to each other. For example:
an entry of an antique monument contains also all relevant renaissance
documents. The most common access to the database will be via the
antique monument or via the renaissance document. In addition to
this the access via names or locations will be important.
All entries are linked together in a structured way. Moving through
the database will allow you to reach any point in the database.
The links are always established in the same way. You will soon
learn that the same keys are used again and again.
It is important to work through all the following examples. It will
soon become clear that the pattern of searching and combining search
results is repetitive and easily applied.
Once this logic has been understood you will be able to execute
queries which are not described in detail in this manual and carry
out very complex searches.
