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Biblissima Authority Files

Total number of items in the authority files: 410,806

This platform provides Biblissima's authority file in the form of structured data. Its realization is part of the Biblissima programme, the observatory of the written heritage of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance from the 8th to the 18th century.

These authority files are based on data collected and processed within the framework of the Biblissima programme.
They form the backbone of the Biblissima portal and the prototype IIIF Collections of Manuscripts and Rare Books.
They have been set up in order to identify, disambiguate, harmonize and align named entities from a wide range of data sources (digital libraries, catalogues and specialized databases on manuscripts and early printed books). This effort has been ongoing since the beginning of Biblissima in 2013.

For any request, or if you want to contribute, you can contact us at team@biblissima-condorcet.fr

Disclaimer: In its first phase, this platform is designed as a tool for managing, publishing and exposing the Biblissima authority files. Its primary goal is to create a hub of identifiers and structured data, that is accessible, interoperable and reusable for other projects.
This hub plays a central role in the interoperability of the resources processed within the framework of Biblissima, while allowing other projects to benefit from the work of reconciliation and harmonisation carried out in this direction. The data is indeed accessible in an automated way by various mechanisms intended primarily for machines (see below Data access and API).
Nevertheless, developments are planned to improve the user interface, the full-text search, and to offer easier browsing and querying modes.

Available Authority Files

• Person Authority File
• Geographical Names Authority File
• Organisations Authority File
• Shelfmarks of manuscripts and early printed books

The ongoing development of the Biblissima Authority Files has been presented at various seminars:

• What’s in a Name? Text and Image for Indexing Prosopographical Data, Ecole d'été « Bibliotheca Digitalis. Reconstitution de réseaux culturels au début des Temps modernes. Des sources primaires aux données », Le Mans, 5 juillet 2017. Available at https://projet.biblissima.fr/fr/what-is-in-a-name-text-image-indexing-prosopographical-data
• The Biblissima Authority File of Geographical Names, Atelier Campus Condorcet « Référentiels géo-historiques sémantisés pour les humanités », Ecole nationale des chartes, 14 mai 2019. Available at https://projet.biblissima.fr/fr/biblissima-authority-file-geographical-names
• Les référentiels Biblissima : épine dorsale du portail Biblissima et de IIIF-Collections, Séminaire sur l'étude des provenances dans les bibliothèques territoriales françaises (CERL, MCC, Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon), Lyon, 3 avril 2019. Available at https://projet.biblissima.fr/fr/referentiels-biblissima-epine-dorsale-portail-biblissima-iiif-collections

In progress

These will be published gradually during 2021.

• Textual works
• Iconographic descriptors

Data access, API

The data published on this platform is available through several APIs. Their endpoints and respective documentation are detailed on the API page.

Data Licence

The Biblissima authority data are published under the terms of the Open License Version 2.0 (Etalab).