https://tomdeneire.github.io/fablepictor/
FablePictor is based on data containing illustrations of monkeys, chickens, snakes, donkeys and foxes, found in a specific set of fable books. The books are part of the collection Gielen, kept in the Special Collections of the University Library of Antwerp. FablePictor makes it possible to browse through 834 images, coming from fables from Aesop, Jean de la Fontaine and many others.
Within the scope of this pilot, 74 of the 195 different book titles have been studied. 37 books contained illustrations of the aforementioned animals that were selected as a starting point. The oldest book dates from 1607, the youngest one from 1838. This project enables you to easily compare the presence and presentation of fable animals over three centuries, and allows more research into the genre of fable books, book illustration e.g.
The collection Gielen itself is completely digitised and available through IIIF. Therefore, in addition to a permalink to the catalogue record, a manifest of the book is also included for every illustration. The cutouts of the illustrations were made by using IIIF Image Manipulation Tool. For every term describing the printing process or technique a link to the corresponding AAT-record is also provided.
The data was put together by Lotte Tilborghs, master student in history. She actively participated in the concept of the project, in collaboration with Tom Deneire and Jan Corthouts who gave advice on the necessary (meta)data and methods to find/produce it. Maartje De Wilde and Kara Verboven from the Special Collections department helped Lotte on a daily basis, they initiated and supervised the project.
This project was made possible with IIIF and Pictor, a project by ⚡ Tom Deneire Consulting.
For questions or suggestions, please contact University of Antwerp Special Collections.