Digital Blog

Follow the Digital Team on our adventures through digitisation and as we make our Collections accessible online.

Stories and challenges of digitising the Chester Beatty’s Japanese woodblock print collection from the Edo periodriod

16 Nov 2020

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How We Photograph Gold

28 May 2020

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Insight into beginning a new position as a museum photographer at the Chester Beatty

6 Apr 2020

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Preparing objects for digitisation

25 Feb 2020

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Setting Up Our Studio

22 Jan 2020

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How can a digital file become a digital asset?

14 Nov 2019

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Why digitise?

31 Oct 2019

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This manuscript, ‘The Sources of Truths and the Explication of Paths’ (`Uyun al-haqa'iq wa idah al-tara'iq), by Abu'l-Qasim "al-Simawi" al-`Iraqi (d. c. 1260) is a compendium on magic, alchemy and esoteric "sacred secrets" (nawamis). The author outlines the contents as follows: "all the operations of sacred secrets, fire spells, suffumigations, fermentations, soporifics, invisibility spells, hiding spells, cunning works, and the occult properties of minerals, plants, animals and the condition of man's composition and what relates to him in all seasons". It wasn’t a particularly challenging object to digitise but it held a great deal of interest for me. At least part of this interest was because of the wonderful illustrations and their rather esoteric character. But it was their simplistic nature that really caught my attention and kept me hounding our poor Islamic Collections curator as I tried to find out what they meant. If, like me, you also find them fascinating you can find the manuscript on our website by searching for Ar 4019. #chesterbeattydigitisation #culturalhistory #chesterbeatty #museumsfromhome #Islamiccollections #magic #alchemy

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Well, it’s finally back to the office for at least part of the Chester Beatty Digitisation team. Our ‘new normal’ involves mandatory temperature checks when entering the building and one-way routes throughout our building. #gottastaysafe
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After three months of working from home a small return to normalcy is certainly a refreshing change. .
#backtotheoffice #chesterbeatty #chesterbeattydigitisation #digitisation

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1 Corinthians 4.4-10; 4.11-19
This papyrus plate contains a folio from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians from a codex containing the Pauline Epistles (P46), written in Greek with ink on papyrus; made in Egypt and dated c. 200 AD. The manuscript is the oldest surviving almost complete copy of the Pauline Epistles (P46); 86 of its original 112 folios survive. These are divided between the Chester Beatty (56) and the University of Michigan (30). Papyrus sheets are mounted between glass plates. Considering this glass mount is highly reflective a non-reflective tent is created to reduce any unwanted reflections. This is done by placing a piece of black velvet over the top of the softboxes, which has a slit in it to allow the camera lens to poke through. A cushion is also placed underneath the glass plates to make sure they are well protected. This object can be found in the Chester Beatty online collections by referencing BP II f.42. #chesterbeattydigitisation #cultualhistory #chesterbeatty #museumsfromhome #irishmuseumsonline #papyri #papyrus

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Hormuzd and Bahram enthroned, an abridged Book of Kings (Muntakhab-i Shahnama)
Persian in nasta’liq script, 1660-1680, Sikakol (India)
This manuscript is an abridged Book of Kings (Muntakhab-i Shahnama), by Tawakkul Beg. This is a shorter prose version of Firdausi’s epic poem, the Book of Kings (Shanama). The prose summary also includes verse extracts from the original. The abridgement was written in Kabul in 1643, by a military officer Tawakkul Beg, on the order of the Mughal governor of Kabul. This picture shows Hormuzd and Bahram being enthroned and is featured in our new In-Focus Tour “the Mystery of Mani”, which can now be viewed online. Digitising large manuscripts can be challenging. When digitising a new page within a manuscript the previous pages need to be held back so that the new page to be digitised is fully visible to the camera. This is done by draping a snake weight over them or by strapping a line of thin non-adhesive tape across the already digitised pages. This manuscript in the first image can be found on the Chester Beatty online collections by referencing In 23, the specific folio number of this painting is f.409v. While the manuscript in the second image can be found by searching Ar 3113.
#chesterbeattydigitisation #culturalhistory #chesterbeatty #irishmuseumsonline #museumsfromhome #manuscript #abridgedbookofkings

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Happy Friday everybody! As we’ve mentioned many times, one of the biggest digitisation challenges we face at the Chester Beatty is how best to photograph our objects that contain gold. This beautiful material added obvious prestige to commissioned objects and was also perfect for adding life and warm highlights to already beautiful objects. It is also a material that changes dramatically depending on how one photographs it, which can greatly alter the appearance and feeling of a digitised object. .
If you’re at all interested in reading more about this fascinating material and our approach to digitising it we have recently put up an in-depth blog post detailing the evolution of the techniques that we use. And, of course, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or just want to hear about any other techniques we might use. .
This image is CBL T 447, f.9r .

Link to our blog in bio. .
#museum #chesterbeatty #chesterbeattydigitisation #culturalhistory #irishmuseumsonline #museumsfromhome #illumination #manuscripts #digitisation #techniques #lighting #lightingforgold #gold

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Fireflies at Ochanomizu.
You won’t see many Fireflies buzzing around Ireland during these warm late spring evenings, although this beautiful Japanese Woodblock print can certainly help one to dream of such a sight. The warm hues of the boat and its reflection on the water contrast with the dark night sky to create a serene and tranquil feeling. If you click on to the second image you can see the reverse of the print is almost just as beautiful. I have many favourites from the Japanese print collection, however this is certainly my favourite of all.
This colour woodblock print is by Kobayashi Kiyochika and was printed in Japan around 1880 and is a Yoko-ōban format, nishiki-e print. The print shows a pleasure boat riding through a canal under a night sky dotted with fireflies.
To digitise this object, two Profoto flashes with 1.2mx1m softboxes were placed on opposite sides of the object. The softboxes were then positioned roughly 1.5 meters equidistant from the object, angled at 45 degrees. This setup was used for all of the Japanese prints as it is important to keep the light standard throughout the one collection of prints. The object can be found within the Chester Beatty’s online collections by referencing J 2786 #museum #chesterbeatty #chesterbeattydigitisation #culturalhistory #irishmuseumsonline #museumsfromhome #japaneseart #woodblockprint #serene #fireflies #nightskies #canal

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The Ibn al-Bawwab Qur’an was produced in Baghdad in the year 1000. Its smooth cursive calligraphy is the work of Abu’l Hasan `Ali ibn Hilal (d. 1022), more commonly known as Ibn al-Bawwab (meaning "son of the doorkeeper"). Ibn al-Bawwab is renowned as one of Islam’s greatest master-calligraphers, and this manuscript is believed to be the only surviving Qur’an genuinely written in his hand. It is also important for being one of the earliest dated Qur’ans copied on paper (as opposed to parchment) and one of the earliest written in a cursive script. In the year 1000, Baghdad was ruled nominally by the `Abbasid caliphs, who were in turn controlled by the Buyid dynasty. While this Qur'an is not documented as a royal commission, Ibn al-Bawwab had connections to the Buyid rulers: before coming to Baghdad, he had served as chief librarian for a Buyid amir's collection in Shiraz, Iran. .
This beautiful Qur’an was one of the pieces exhibited in last year’s Gift of a Lifetime exhibition. One of the highlights of this was that it allowed us to take some more creative images of this historic masterpiece. These are some of the images that were taken. The biggest challenge for photographing objects like this is ensuring the safety of the object. To do this we worked closely with our conservation department (who even lent us a pair of hands for the shoot) and tried to keep the handling of the object to a minimum. Hope you enjoy them and feel free to let us know what you think in the comments. .
This manuscript can be viewed on the Chester Beatty’s online collections by referencing the object number: Is 1431. .
#museum #chesterbeatty #chesterbeattydigitisation #culturalhistory #irishmuseumsonline #museumsfromhome #quran #islamicart #islamicmanuscripts #calligraphy

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The simurgh carries Zal to her nest, from the Book of Kings (Shahnama) by Firdausi

Today is International Museums Day 2020 and to celebrate this, I wish to share my favorite painting from our collection. The painting, from our Persian collection, is taken from the Book of Kings (Shahnama) by the poet Firdausi who was born in Tous, Iran, c. 940. This painting is one of twenty-two folios from a partial copy of the Shahnama.
The painting shows a simurgh (giant magical bird) carrying baby Zal, whose father had abandoned him as he was afraid his son was a bad omen due to the fact that Zal had been born with very pale skin and hair as white as snow. Upon finding Zal crying in the wilderness, the simurgh decides to carry him to her nest at the top of a mountain and raise him as one of her own with her three chicks. Later in the story, Zal is reunited with his remorseful father and returns to the village of his birth. However, he continues to see the simurgh as a mother figure and she continues to look out for him.
We are delighted to announce that a new In-Focus visual/audio tour about the story of Zal from the Book of Kings will be released on our Chester Beatty website soon, so please continue to check our website for more info!
Paintings from the Shahnama are often illuminated with enchanting gold illustrations, which are a pleasure to admire but can be very challenging to photograph. Therefore, photographing paintings such as this one can often involve a fair amount of experimentation to show the golden grandeur and to render the vibrant colours accurately. To achieve this we used two Profoto flashes with 1.2mx1m softboxes and effectively created a light tent above the camera and object. We have since moved away from this technique because we have found a new alternative. More information on this technique can be found in our post from April 29th. This painting can be viewed on the Chester Beatty’s online collections by referencing the object number: Per 277.12. #internationmuseumsday #museum #chesterbeatty #chesterbeattydigitisation #culturalhistory #irishmuseumsonline #museumsfromhome #persianart #poetry #simurgh #shahnama #thebookofkings #firdausi

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Extracts from the Pali canon (Tipitaka) and Story of Phra Malai
The Exhibition Thai Buddhist Tales – Stories along the Path to Enlightenment, was held at the Chester Beatty between June 14 2019 to January 26 2020. If you missed it don’t despair the full virtual tour of the entire exhibition can be viewed on the Chester Beatty website. This was one of the beautiful folded books to feature in the exhibition, in which the paintings tell the stories of Buddha’s past lives.
The beautiful visuals were not difficult to render through digitisation, however supporting the object during the digitisation procedure poses its challenges. This object was photographed by following the general procedure we use to digitise folded books, where several pieces of foam blocks are used to support the openings. The foam support must always be the same height as the corresponding text block. The photographed pages are then folded onto the foam support. You can explore this folding book on display in the Thai Buddhist Tales virtual tour on the Chester Beatty website. You can also view the entire object on the Chester Beatty online collections by searching for object number: CBL Thi 1311. #chesterbeatty #chesterbeattydigitisation #irishmuseumsonline #connectwithculture #digitisation #culturalhistory #ThaiBuddhistTales #Thaicollections #PhraMalai #Enlightenment #Buddha #foldedbooks

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Hi everyone, as part of our attempts to cure the lockdown blues, one of our photographers, Jon Riordan, will be giving a Zoom webinar responding to our current exhibition: Siam: Through the lens of John Thomson 1865–66. This talk, Looking at Siam: Situating John Thomson’s work then and now, will explore the history of photography to try and provide a historical context for how this exhibition was created. It will also explore how modern technology and display methods may affect how we, as the public, engage with the materials. .
The talk is scheduled for 13:10 on Thursday, 14th of May. .
To register for this talk please find the link in our bio.
#zoomtalk #siam #johnthomson #historicphotography #chesterbeatty #chesterbeattydigitisation #digitisation @chester_beatty_dublin
@chesterbeattyconservation
#museumsfromhome #irishmuseumsonline #webinar

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Fifth month: Catching fireflies (Gogatsu hotarugari)
Today is Children’s Day in Japan! Every year this day is set aside to respect children’s personalities and to celebrate their happiness. Children’s Day has been celebrated in Japan since ancient times and was designated as a national holiday in Japan in 1948. In celebration of Japan’s Children’s Day and in celebration of several new Japanese prints being added to our online collections I decided to share this image titled Fifth month: Catching fireflies (Gogatsu hotarugari) from the series twelve months of children’s games. The print was made by Kito Shigemasa and printed in Japan between 1770 and 1775 and is a colour woodblock print.
Japanese prints are generally a pleasure to photograph, they are often very easy to handle and given their soft tones they do not require extensive lighting manipulation and experimentation. The main challenge when photographing a print is the handling and positioning to photograph the back (verso). Each print is very fragile and can sometimes be large, therefore it is important to handle each one with as much care as possible. The verso is photographed by slipping a white card next to the mount tabs, then when in place the print is gently flipped over onto the card, so the verso is visible. Once digitisation is complete the print must be carefully flipped back to its original position. The mount is then closed and the print is packed away in its protective box. Please visit the Chester Beatty online collections and marvel at our new additions of Japanese prints and scrolls. The images in this post can be found by referencing the object number J 2513. #chesterbeatty #chesterbeattydigitisation #irishmuseumsonline #connectwithculture #digitisation #culturalhistory #ChildrensDayJapan #children #Japaneseart

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@chester_beatty_dublin started a game of #MuseumScattergories and they nominated us! So here is @chesterbeattydigitisation with the letter C!
Why not join in with your Name, Object, City and Flower?
We nominate @museumsunista @gallery_of_photography_ireland @nationalmuseumofireland.
Name: Charles Martin (1884-1934). He was a French artist and illustrator best known for his work for French fashion magazine, Journal des Dames et des Modes. This print is ‘Garden dress by Poiret’, Wep 0887. It is one of the many prints by Charles Martin held in the Chester Beatty collection. .
Object: Cuneiform tablet, this is CT 128, a Neo Babylonian (626-539 BC) cuneiform tablet recording a debt for grain, dated to the reign of Nabopolassar (king of Babylon), made of clay and produced at Sippar (modern Tell Abu Habbah). .
City: Cairo, the city where this detached folio, Ar 5655.118, was created. This painting is from Lesson Two, "On the Use of the Lance", under section seven, "On Advancing, Retreating and Encircling". There is extensive Arabic literature on the arts of horsemanship, and this copy is one of the earliest illustrated examples in existence. .
Flower: Cherry blossom. It would be impossible to not celebrate the wonderful depictions of cherry blossoms held within the Chester Beatty collection. This one is from an illustrated Japanese manuscript (J 1038.8) that is entitled, Festival of cherry blossoms (Hana no en). .
Remember to drop by our website where you can find all of these objects and more. Link in bio.
#chesterbeattydigitisation
#irishmuseumsonline
#museumsfromhome #parisianfashion #cuneiform #horsemanship #cherryblossoms #culturalheritage #digitisation

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Chester Beatty
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