IPP is a freely available database of Islamicate Arts of the Book which exists to help users locate paintings, illuminations and bindings, and to signpost them onward with links to authoritative online and print publications.
The database now exceeds 38,000 references, spanning 27,000 works in over 270 collections, all searchable by picture description as well as by place, date, accession number and other metadata. Following some gentle prompting on MELANET, there is now better coverage of works all the way up to about 1900 CE; and the site is now able to present images for over 30% of all its entries.
IPP recently began a relationship with the University of Hamburg’s Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures that will enrich the database’s features and extend the coverage of works published online as well as in print, especially including collections where Creative Commons, Public Domain or special permissions make it possible to display actual images. By the end of 2018, this already included digitised works from the British Library, Cambridge University Library, New York Public Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum fur Islamische Kunst, New York Public Library, Paris Bibliotheque Nationale, Royal Asiatic Society, Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, and the Baltimore Walters Art Museum (with grateful acknowledgements).
A lot more work is in progress and we hope to have more to report when the site receives an upgrade around April.
Stephen Serpell
Islamic Painted Page &
Research Associate, Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC), University of Hamburg
Tel: +44/7885-495087
