Iluminacións medievais na rede: retos e oportunidades para a investigación/ Medieval illuminations on the internet: Challenges and opportunities for research

Abstract

Searching Internet resources for manuscript illuminations conforming to a specific criterion can be a difficult undertaking when exhaustiveness is the aim, and especially when the search is conducted on manuscripts which are available in large numbers, such as the books of hours. Effective retrieval requires prior knowledge of certain search tools, particularly those associated with image databases. Through the analysis of a specific query when using such resources, the present study aims to identify a number of key characteristics of image retrieval here. Since finding appropriate images also entails consulting accessible digitized manuscripts, and also bearing in mind the amount of time necessary to carry out these tasks, we suggest that it might be useful to develop resources focused on a topic, with this serving as a bridge between researchers and the overwhelming volume of images available.