Useful Databases
From museum databases and museum catalogues to private photo collections, there are many specialized places to search for material culture.
- Arlima https://www.arlima.net/
- Bildindex http://www.bildindex.de/
- British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm {their 'old' site}
- British Library Digitized Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/ {their 'new' site}
- Andrea Carloni, Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrea_carloni/
- Cleveland Museum of Art Collections https://www.clevelandart.org/art/collection/search
- Enluminures http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/ {collections of photos from some MS as a photogallery}
- Fondazione Federico Zeri http://catalogo.fondazionezeri.unibo.it/search/work {mostly black and white, but very extensive and indexed}
- imaREAL / REALOnline https://realonline.imareal.sbg.ac.at/
- Kunera: Late Medieval Badges and Ampullae from the Netherlands (Dutch, lots of pewter) https://kunera.nl/en/
- Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wien, ObjektDb https://www.khm.at/en/objectdb/
- Livrustkammaren, Skoklosters Slotts, and Hallwylska Museum Collection Database Online http://emuseumplus.lsh.se/eMuseumPlus "ringbrynja" is one useful keyword to find sleeves of mail, gussets of mail, and shirts of mail in the Swedish Royal Armouries
- Manuscript Miniatures https://manuscriptminiatures.com/
- Mandragore, base des manuscrits enluminés de la BnF http://mandragore.bnf.fr/jsp/rechercheExperte.jsp
- Manus Online (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico delle Biblioteche Italiane) https://manus.iccu.sbn.it//ricerca.php
- Metropolitan Museum of Art Collections https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search
- Museum of London Collections Online https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/collections
- Portable Antiquities Scheme, UK https://finds.org.uk/
- Roel Renmans, Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/roelipilami/
- Web Gallery of Art https://www.wga.hu/ (est. 1996)
- Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi of Great Britain https://www.cvma.ac.uk/index.html A corpus of "medieval" and 19th century English stained glass. I am not sure when "medieval" ends for them and the search by year does not work for me as of July 2021.
- Below the Surface: Archaeological Finds from the North https://belowthesurface.amsterdam/nl
- Portable Antiquities Scheme, Netherlands https://www.portable-antiquities.nl/pan/#/publicshop/middel
- WOODAN Database (Archaeological Wood from the Netherlands) https://org.woodan.nl/table.php?language=NL
- Secrets of the Ice: The Archaeology of Glaciers and Ice Patches https://secretsoftheice.com/ (Norwegian focus)
- The Yorck Project on Wikimedia Commons: 10,000 public-domain photos of ancient and medieval art https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:PD-Art_(Yorck_Project)
Some useful Dutch terms are Tafelmes "table knife" eg. https://belowthesurface.amsterdam/nl/vondst/NZD1.00379MTL008?index=16833 Klootdolk "bollock dagger" eg. https://belowthesurface.amsterdam/en/vondst/NZD1.00087MTL055?index=18213 Tuimelaar "Crossbow nut" eg. https://belowthesurface.amsterdam/nl/vondst/NZD1.00393FAU024?niveau1=Wapens%20%26%20bewapening&index=529 Schildknop "shield boss, Umbo" eg. https://www.portable-antiquities.nl/pan/#/object/public/12233
A guide to free-to-use images with a focus on later periods is Sarah A. Bendall, "The Best Places to Obtain Early Modern Images for Use in Publications," 11 March 2020 https://sarahabendall.com/2020/03/11/early-modern-images-for-publication/
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created and copyrighted on 2021-03-03 by S. Manning ~ last updated 2025-08-29