Arkyves: reference tool for the history of culture

Abstract

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 more than 500.000 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.