-INTRODUCTION
-
-SCOPE AND
GOALS-
The BAPTISTERIA
SACRA INDEX is an in-process iconographic index
of baptismal fonts, covering from the early Christian
period to the 17th century, chiefly from Europe, but
including representative samples from North Africa,
the Middle East and Latin America as well.
The long-term goal of this project is to establish an
exhaustive corpus of documentation destined for use
by art historians, liturgists, historians and other
scholars concerned with the artistic, archaeological,
cultural, historical and liturgical issues contained
in, and represented on, baptismal fonts. A parallel
goal of the project is to create an inventory of baptismal
fonts, both extant and lost, within the chronological
parameters already mentioned.
-HISTORY-
The INDEX was started
six years ago as a working tool for a specific research
project in the medieval workshops of Gotland, Sweden,
and their baptismal fonts. In its original conception
it was limited in scope and never intended for public
release.
The idea of a work of wider distribution originated
in 1997 in a conversation with a Belgian publisher who
thought that a printed sampler of baptismal fonts would
be of interest. Our idea, however, from the very beginning,
was to produce a multi-media object, in CD-ROM format,
with the potential for periodical releases, but the
publisher, at that time, had limited experience in the
electronic field. Soon after, we became concerned about
the limitations of the CD-ROM format itself to deal
with a vast body of work that would require multiple
CD's and frequent updates.
To make a long story short, we made three crucial decisions
at that point:
- to expand the
scope to the creation of a catalogue of European baptismal
fonts
- to release the catalogue on a relational database
structure
- to by-pass the established publishing environment
and release the INDEX on a web-base platform for wide
access and continuous update, with a functional search
engine geared to research needs.
The last issue is, we think, of particular importance,
and has affected many aspects of the project, as I shall
point out in a few minutes.
- CONTENTS & ORGANIZATION -
Each baptismal font is contained in a database record.
The contents of the record are controlled by a set of
relational tables which link bibliographical references,
iconographic and thematic subjects, etc. The database
used is ACCESS, by Microsoft. It was selected for its
availability and suitability, as well as for its relative
ease of operation, considering our lack of technical
proficiency . We are aware that any choice of software
implies accepting the functional boundaries of the product,
which will have consequences in the way we enter data.
The database contains now over 7,400 records. These
records exist at different levels of completion and
content, ranging from the fullest of entries -that being
our aim and goal- to some which consist merely of a
name and a bibliographical and geographical reference.
The iconographic classification of the images uses ICONCLASS,
the international system, as a guideline, but we have
found several limitations with its use:
I) being an independent
project we cannot afford the implementation of its
electronic version, while the manual version is very
labour-intensive
II) ICONCLASS has not developed its coverage of Northern/Scandinavian
areas well enough for our needs - it does not cover
the thematic scope we have encountered on these fonts
- it does not include references to the motifs and
features that we record and that should be searchable
iconographic items, as well as architectural and decorative
motifs
III) our web interface allows for keyword searches
of the database, which makes the identification and
location of the data very flexible for any user unfamiliar
with the formalities of ICONCLASS . Keyword search
is increasingly becoming the preferred means by users,
in our experience in library work .
- STRUCTURE
-
The structure of the database and the design of the
project are based on our knowledge of the object, the
baptismal font. The main benefit of this fact is that,
within the operational capabilities of the application
(i.e., ACCESS), all decisions and applications are made
by us without external considerations and delays.
Only three areas of the project have outside collaboration
in its design and operability:
I) the interface with
the web (Cold Fusion software and UofT's ITS assistance)
II) the housing of the data and its distribution of
the end product (ITER - UofT)
III) the initial design of the INDEX
was reviewed by several colleagues: its interface
design, the scope of the record, etc.
For practical purposes the images
reside outside the database, and it is the web interface
that loads them dynamically when the user asks for a
particular record or group of records. An earlier prototype
that used OLE links to the images proved a "memory
hog" with outrageous hardware demands and was therefore
discarded. Instead, the database record contains pointers
to the images;these pointers are in the form of a filename;
a relational link exists to a table that has a listing
of all the images in the INDEX. The images themselves
can therefore reside on a separate server. Hence the
size of the database is at present just over 32Mb, the
size of a single high-resolution TIFF image file!
- SOURCES -
I) bibliographical references:
historical font studies, doctoral dissertations, 19th-century
amateur reports, especially in France and Britain
(local archaeological societies, the Gentleman's Magazine,
etc.). Some of these are good sources for images as
well, and they provide a historical evidence (changes
in the object, location, repair, etc.)
II) on-site work: selected fonts are
thoroughly studied and documented in situ. The limitations
of the on-site work are obvious, therefore works are
selected for this treatment on the basis of their
value as representatives of groups or workshops, as
well as for the individual characteristics of the
specific work
III) related projects: a lot of data
has been gathered directly or indirectly on baptismal
fonts all over the world. Much of this data may never
see the light of day for an assortment of reasons.
We try to integrate as much of this as we can by exchanges,
collaborative endeavours and the like. We have successfully
established working relationships with individual
scholars as well as the Instituto Príncipe
de Viana in Spain, the Bild Data Project in Stockholm,
the Paradisefonten project in Lund, the Danmarks Kirker
series in Copenhagen and others. We would like to
extend this relationship with scholars working in
related fields, like Richard Rutherford, here present,
whose work on early-Christian baptisteries in Turkey
we will be able to see in the next presentation today.
IV) external contributions by the public at
large: there is a wealth of data being gathered
and made available by non-professionals, the modern
equivalent of the 19th-century aficionado, today in
the guise of the ubiquitous webmaster (Peter
Fairweather, aka Churchmouse, in Lincolnshire;
Simon Knott in Suffolk; Antonio
García Omedes in Aragón,
etc.); the value of their contribution must be emphasised
here for, unlike many of the established publishing
and/or academic sources, they are ready to share the
fruits of their hobby or passion generously without
the hindrance and formalities that make the sharing
of data so difficult. We have installed in our information
page a "send-your-font" e-mail form to encourage
and facilitate contributions.
- ISSUES -
The main issue is perhaps the in-progress characteristic
of this INDEX. When the INDEX is released, in one or
two-years' time -depending on how long the final editing
process takes- it will be updated constantly as new
information becomes available to us. This approach
stems in part from an underlying personal philosophy
that "a timely something is better than an eternal
nothing", as well as from the possibilities offered
by digital technology and web publishing. We are no
longer tied to the print restrictions in format or in
delivery.
The issue of copyright and intellectual property
was initially a worrying factor, probably because we
felt that this area of the law was much too vague to
our liking and we were working with material all over
the world. It is much less of a worry now. We are a
project based in Canada and we adhere by Canadian copyright
law. As information professionals we are aware of the
regulations. As academic researchers we are mindful
of the importance of establishing and respecting the
intellectual rights. The protection of the copyright
in our own work is mostly an issue we leave to the distributor.
The contributors to the INDEX retain copyright over
their own work, while the INDEX serves to distribute
their work more widely.
We are conscious of the issue of the longevity
of the project and its usefulness in the future.
We find that the standards we have put in place are
being shaken or displaced by:
I) the introduction of other related
objects (holy-water stoups and baptisteries)
II) technological developments (reduced storage costs,
higher resolution capacities, platform changes)
III) the influence of other projects' ideas and implementation
resulting in a constant re-evaluation of the standards.
FUNDING. We have found that pursuing funding is a very
labour-intensive occupation that tends to compete for
our precious time with researching, documenting and
organising the fonts. As independent scholars, we never
find the time for it. It remains an outstanding issue.
