A PDF version of the Guidelines will be made available here.

Version 1.1 (December 2022)
Marieke van Delft
Additions: Marian Lefferts

Website: https://pda.cerl.org
Login: create an account

After registering, you will be sent an email to confirm your address and choose a new password. Please keep an eye on your SPAM box in case the registration mail gets lost there.

Consent By making use of the account you have created for the Provenance Digital Archive, you consent to the following:

• Your name will be displayed with the records that you create
• Descriptions of provenance information that you create will be made available to all under a CC0 license
• You must ensure that images you upload are free from copyright. Any images that you contribute will be made available as IIIF and under a CC0 license

If you have uploaded an image to the CERL PDA before, your account may have been migrated already. Then just request a password reset.

Preferably, the entire page with a provenance mark is photographed so one sees the context of use of the mark. Please add a second image with a detail of the specific provenance mark. If a page of the book that you describe contains more than one evidence of provenance, for example two inscriptions by two different former owners, you should create two entries in the PDA, one for each former owner. We hope that in a future version of the PDA, it will be possible to highlight the specific provenance mark you describe. Until then the second image with the detail is required.

The PDA is meant for unique provenance marks. Therefore, for repetitive marks such as Ex Libris, Armorial Bindings or Library Stamps of a specific former owner, one description is sufficient. If the same mark is used multiple times in various books, the mark is only described once in the PDA. Inscriptions can be repetitive, but when the former owner uses a different wording or the former owner’s handwriting has changed substantially, an inscription can be added twice or more times. The decision whether a mark should be described separately is up to the editor creating the description. Therefores, before adding a new image, check if the image is already available in the PDA by searching with the elements you plan to describe the provenance mark: name of the former owner (user of the provenance mark), subject of the image, text on the mark or ICONCLASS code. Then act as follows:

• If you cannot find the provenance mark in the PDA, create a new item;
• If the mark is already described, do not insert it a second time; click on the image and then you can add the source with the second instance in the Notes field at the bottom of the screen. We strive to turn this into a linked field in the future; for now only add the URL of MEI, a library catalogue etc.
• Descriptions can only be edited by the person who made the initial contribution, and the general PDA-editor; the name of the creator of the description is displayed in the record.

You start the description of a new provenance mark by selecting “Upload New Item” in the blue bar at the top of your screen.

First, upload your image(s). NB: only JPG’s are allowed. There you can upload one or (if needed) more images of the provenance mark, preferably no larger than 2 MB. Please ensure that all images are free of copyright. Then describe the provenance mark by filling in the fields on the PDA input form. Fields with an * are obligatory

Source URI
Paste a URI in this field, e.g.:

• HPB: the Heritage of the Printed Book Database; you find the URL in HPB by clicking the “cite” image with your right mouse button and copy the link, for ample: http://hpb.cerl.org/record/GB-UkOxU.01.013365380
• MEI: Material evidence in Incunabula Database, for example: https://data.cerl.org/mei/02100998
• ISTC: Incunabula Short-Title Catalogue, for example: https://data.cerl.org/istc/is00670300
  

In certain instances, pasting the URI in the box will ensure that Bibliographic details are automatically added to the PDA record.

Bibliographic details
If the source of your provenance mark does not occur in any of these bibliographical resources, you can manually add relevant information to the fields of the Bibliographic details (Author, Title, Imprint).

Institution Name
Institution names are based upon the CERL "Holding Institutions" Database. For more information or to add a missing institution, please contact: Marian Lefferts, CERL Executive Manager

Shelfmark
Insert the shelfmark of the item containing the provenance mark you are describing.

Location in source
Picklist. Describe the location choosing one of the options from the picklist; a page or folio number can be inserted in the box right of the pick list. Before the number, you must add fol. or p.

Description
Here a general description of the provenance mark must be given. This is a free field, you may choose your own wording (preferably English); the more specific the description, the easier the mark will be found.
Examples:

• Ex-libris of J.B. Verdussen, oval mark with birds feeding a bird on a nest, surrounded by a border with text.
• Notes by J. Visser with bibliographical information concerning the edition
• Stamp of the Pragae Emautina Bibliotheca

For specific, standardised information, please use the fields on the PDA input form.

Kind of provenance
Picklist. Choose one of the options. If you miss a particular kind of provenance, please write to the PDA Coordinator, Marieke van Delft.

Transcription
Transcribe the text (if any) on the provenance mark in normalised form, i.e. do not use capitals if these are not used in a common sentences; give the text as it is meant, i.e. solve the u-v, i-j etc. in Latin[“virtus” instead of “virtvs”] and if possible, give a translation between brackets [ …].

Language
Picklist. Choose the language of the text on the mark. If the language is not available in the picklist, you can choose Other. Please specify the language of the provenance mark in the Notes field.

Technique
Use a term from the picklist. If you miss a technique, please send an email to the PDA Coordinator Marieke van Delft.

ICONCLASS
Click on the ICONCLASS button. When you enter a search term in the search box, you are presented with ICONCLASS codes that are potentially relevant. Select the code you want. For more inspiration, see: http://iconclass.org/help/outline.

Can You Help forum
If you could not identify the image, please give all the information about the image you have and tick this box. The image will then show up in the Can You Help forum at Arkyves and other scholars might be able to help you to identify it. If you could not identify the image, please give all the information about the image you have and tick this box. The image will then show up in the Can You Help forum at Arkyves and other scholars might be able to help you identify it.

Notes
In this field you can add information you were not yet able to provide: for example URL’s of other books with the same image. Other useful information such as bibliographical references, references to other provenance websites, information about a former owner etc. For some elements new fields might be defined in the future.

These guidelines are compiled for describing provenance marks in the PDA. You can link from MEI to the CERL PDA through inserting the Permanent link from the CERL PDA in the appropriate field in MEI.