Glossary

Below you will find descriptions of the terminology used on the website and especially within the Insight Research Platform (IRP).

BSIP Reference	A unique, permanent reference to a given source, image or research target. Learn more about BSIP References.
Collective Source	A physical binding together of several Sources, each of which is generally considered a work of art in their own right. This binding can take many forms such as buildings, books and manuscripts. In general it pulls together Sources which are bound into the fabric of something. For example, buildings may encompass stone sculptures and frescoes (because they are paintings which are physically bound into the fabric of a building). Other examples are illuminated manuscripts and books of all kinds including printed books and albums. A Collective Source is not merely the place were several movable artworks are co-located. So a painting on canvas located in a church is not part of a Collective Source, unless it is bound to the fabric of the building itself.
Custodian Reference	This is used on Sources and Collective Sources. For Collective Sources it is most used with regard to manuscripts and provides the holding institution's main reference for the manuscript, and on the Source the Custodian Reference then refers to the specific folio or page. If the Source is part of a Collective Source that is a building, it will refer to the location of the Source. In most other cases where the Source is not part of a Collective Source it will be the holding institution's reference such as a shelf mark, inventory number or accession number.
Dates - Decades, Centuries etc.	BSIP uses centuries based on numerical years 0-99. Similarly half centuries are 0-49 and 50-99, quarter centuries 0-24, 25-49, 50-74 and 75-99. Decades based run 0-9, half decades 0-4 and 5-9. This distinction is important when data is aggregated, such as with temporal profiles and can be seen on the IRP Dashboard.
Depiction	A visual representation of something such as an instrument, bow or musician.
Earliest Year	The earliest date in a date range. It will always be equal to, or earlier than the Midpoint Year and Latest Year. Where no range is specified it will be the same as both the Midpoint Year and Latest Year.
Geographic Box	A box defined by lines of two of latitude and two lines of longitude. These are used in advanced searches, and are specified by defining one line of latitude and one line of longitude and the width and height of the box. Because the Earth is an oblate spheroid these boxes change their shape and physical size depending on where they are located.
Geographical Temporal Profile	A Temporal Profile where the data has been separated out by geographical region. It provides a better understanding of whether or not the data being presented is being dominated by volume of data from specific regions.
IIIF	International Image Interoperability Framework. An international standard used to deliver images on the web. Learn more about how BSIP uses IIIF. Learn more about the IIIF standard at Wikipedia .
Image	Used very much in the computing sense of the word. A given source may have any number of images associated with it showing various aspects of that source.
Image Revocation	An image that is no longer required is not simply removed, but is revoked with a reason. This preserves image numbering. The image number is not re-used.
Last Known Location	The place we last knew the work was owned/located. It is not a live update on where a work is located. We do not track works of art touring the world in exhibitions, instead these works will be listed against the custodian that is considered to own a work. This field is updated infrequently. If you can provide newer information please do contact us.
Latest Year	The latest date in a date range. It will always be equal to, or later than the Earliest Year and Midpoint Year. Where no range is specified it will be the same as both the Earliest Year and Midpoint Year.
Liberal Licence	Used to identify the copyright restrictions of images. This flag identifies whether or not BSIP may pass the image on to members of the public or whether we must restrict the image to researchers. Where an image must be restricted a thumbnail of max long side of 300px will be presented to the public, in order for searching and identification purposes.
Midpoint Year	The mean year (rounded to nearest whole year) in a date range. It will always be equal to, or later than the Earliest Year and equal to or earlier than the Latest Year. Where no range is specified it will be the same as both the Earliest Year and Latest Year.
Mirador	An external IIIF viewer that may be used to compare two or more images from the BSIP database or external repositories. Learn more about comparing images. Learn more about the the Mirador project.
Permalink	A hyperlink that we guarantee will not change and will be available as long as the system is available. These links may be used in citations.
Relations	Sources that have some association with each other. The reasons for association can be wide and varied.
Research Target	A depiction of a feature that we are interested in for research. For BSIP this means either a bowed string instrument, a bow used to play such instruments, or a musician who is connected to these items.
Root original	Where a work is essentially copied from another, the Root Original is work that the work in question has ultimately copied. For instance, the root original for a print will be the original artwork that the print is of.
Source	An object (potentially purely digital) that includes depictions of features that we are interested in (Research Targets).
Source Revocation	Where a Source is found to not contain any Research Targets, where previously it was thought it did, it will be revoked. Revocation is made with a reason, and that reason is recorded against the Source BSIP reference. BSIP References are not re-used.
Temporal Profile	Describes how Sources are distributed across time. They provide an insight to the make-up of a data set, and can be used to identify where an analysis of the data may be dominated by a given period, or to identify areas where low volumes of data were available. For any given data set we can be represented using a graph showing numbers of Sources related to a given time period. An example of this can be seen on the IRP Dashboard, where the entire BSIP database is profiled.

(Last modified 31.Aug.2022)