How can you view high-quality marginal decoration in digitized medieval manuscripts? And how can you use IIIF (a set of open standards) and a digital tool to present illustration in the borders of medieval manuscripts to a broad audience? These questions were central to the introductory IIIF workshop given during the Bachelor’s course Onderzoekswerkgroep Kunst tot 1850 – Middeleeuwse Marginale Kunst: Margedecoratie en Gargoyls (23 May 2024). Following an overview of current digital manuscript projects (with a specific focus on the possibilities of IIIF), students were introduced to digital repositories for manuscript illumination. During the workshop each student searched for marginal decorations relating to a topic they were interested in. Students then started working on the digital presentation of their findings by making small digital exhibitions. We here present the various results that came out of this short workshop.

Image in banner from: The Hague, KB, 78 D 40, Festal Missal from Amiens, 1323.

The workshop was given by dr. Martine Meuwese and Sjors Nab. The students’ exhibitions were created using Biblissima and Exhibit.so, a free interactive presentation tool for IIIF documentation. The entire exhibition is in Dutch.