Census Database User Handbook
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  • 🏠Census Database User Handbook (EN)
  • ⏩Quick Start
    • Step 1: Locate the Search Mask
    • Step 2: Choose a Data Set to Search
    • Step 3: Choose How to View Results
    • Step 4: If Desired, Limit Search Results
    • Step 5: Customise the Results View
    • Step 6: Customize the Sort Menu
    • Step 7: Carry out a Search
    • Step 8: Explore Records in the Detail View
    • Step 9: Save Records in a User Account
  • 📖The Census Database: Overview
    • What is the Census Database?
    • Contents of the Census Database
    • History of the Census Database
    • Partner Projects of the Census Database
    • The Census Data Model
    • The Hierarchical Structure of the Census Data
    • CensusIDs
    • Authority Data
  • Navigating and Searching
    • 👉Examples of Typical Searches
      • Find a Specific Antique Monument or Postclassical Work
      • Find Records Related to a Specific Antique Monument
      • Find Records Related to a Specific Postclassical Work
      • Find a Record if You Know the CensusID
      • Find the Top Hit (the Main Entry or Parent Entry)
      • Search for a Bibliographic Reference and all Associated Census Records
      • Search for a Person and all Associated Census Records
      • Find all Census Records Added by a Partner Project
      • Search Without a Specific Object in Mind
      • Find All Images Available for Download
      • 🔎Search Functions
        • The Search Bar
          • Combining Keywords in the Search Bar
          • Using Operators in the Search Bar
        • Advanced Search
          • Select Object Types in Advanced Search
          • Search Linked Object Types in Advanced Search
          • Use Advanced Search to Exclude Records from a Search
          • Use Multiple Parameters in Advanced Search
          • Examples of Advanced Search
            • Find a Specific Antique Monument or Postclassical Work
            • Find a Specific Text Associated with a Census Record
    • 🗄️Data Sets and Sources
      • The Sources Menu: Primary Object Types
      • The Side Bar: Secondary Object Types
    • 🚰Filter Function
      • Filter by Alias
      • Filter by Medium
      • Filter by Location
    • 🖼️Options for Displaying Search Results
    • 📂Sort Function
    • 🔝Set Hierarchy preferences
    • 👓Detail View
      • Detail View Menu Bar
      • Image Preview and Full-Screen Image View
      • Downloading Images
      • Change History
      • Printing PDFs
      • Viewing Metadata in Detail View
  • Using Census Data
    • 💾Data in the Census Records
      • Antique Monument Records
        • Overview
        • Description
        • History
        • Provenance
        • Relationships
        • References
        • Comments
          • Image Records
        • Images
      • Postclassical Work Records
        • Overview
        • Description
        • Texts / Transcriptions
        • Relationships
        • References
        • Comments
        • Images
      • Period Records
      • Location Records
      • Style Records
      • Person Records
      • Bibliography Records
    • ©️Image Copyrights
    • ©️Data and Metadata Copyright
    • 🪧How to Reference Records in the Census Database
    • 🧑User Accounts and Personal Collections
      • Registering for a User Account
      • The Quick Access Column
      • Setting up Collections
      • Saving Records in a Collection
      • Deleting, Moving, and Comparing Records in Collections
      • Creating a Presentation
    • 🔗LOD: Other Methods of Accessing Census Data
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  1. The Census Database: Overview

What is the Census Database?

PreviousThe Census Database: OverviewNextContents of the Census Database

Last updated 2 months ago

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Primarily, the Census database reconstructs relationships between and . For example, the Census links the antique statue of the Apollo Belvedere now in the Vatican Museums with prints, statuettes, texts and drawings created in the postclassical era that reference or respond to this statue. Thousands of similar relationships are mapped by the Census dataset, shedding light on the reception of antique material culture as well as a history of the postclassical survival of antique ruins and remains.

The Census project was founded over seventy-five years ago primarily as a means of cataloguing which ancient monuments were known, and in what state of preservation, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Decades of research has created a vast body of knowledge about the Early Modern afterlife of antique objects and buildings visible in the Renaissance.

Over the years interest in classical reception across a number of academic disciplines has opened up new perspectives on the representation of and response to antiquity in the Early Modern era. As this research expands, the Census database remains a precious resource that extends beyond its original aims. By tracing relationships between Postclassical Works and Antique Monuments and contextualising these relationships with images, bibliography, and other metadata, the database offers a road map to the legacy of antiquity in the Early Modern era. It provides access to a material context of antique reception which now largely been lost through urban development, changes in taste, and the movement of objects into modern-day museums.

The core strengths of the Census database are:

  • Its large collection of images of Antique Monuments and Renaissance works of art, particularly images of Renaissance drawings and sketchbooks.

  • Its unique specialisation in tracing the relationships between Antique Monuments and drawings, prints, and texts created between 1400-1600.

  • The long history of the Census project, which has grown continually for over 75 years and benefitted from close collaboration with international institutions (the Getty, the Warburg Institute, New York University, the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and the Hertziana).

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Antique Monuments
Postclassical Works