Announcing a New Online Coin Catalog from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

New Publication Features Zoomable, High-Resolution Images

April 25, 2000

The Perseus Project and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston are pleased to announce the second illustrated Web catalog of ancient art from the MFA. Over 775 ancient coins from the MFA's celebrated collection are now illustrated, with 1,500 pictures, in the Perseus coin catalog.

This online publication takes full advantage of interconnections in the Perseus library by allowing keyword and full-text searching using the Perseus lookup tool (e.g. "cornucopia", depicted on 90 coins), and the English word and phrase search tool (e.g., a search for the words "temple" and "Augustus" close together). Connections are easily made between individuals portrayed on coins and other resources in the Perseus library, as well. For example, clicking on the name "Trajan" where it appears in a coin catalog entry will lead to the Perseus lookup tool, and a list of other places in Perseus where the emperor Trajan is mentioned, including a description of Trajan's Markets in Rome, in the Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, and an encyclopedia article leading to descriptions of Trajan's forum in Rome, in the text of Pausanias.

We are particularly pleased to announce the availability, for the first time, of full-resolution pictures of the MFA coins. Visitors to any image display page for an MFA coin can now choose from three resolutions: small (600x400 pixels), corresponding with the old Perseus standard image size; medium (1530x1018); or large (3060x2036), equivalent to 18 megabytes each, which allow viewers to zoom in closely and look at fine details. The development of this full-resolution image browser is an important step toward the evolution of a high-resolution side-by-side comparison browser and other Perseus image examination tools which will appear in the coming months.

The Perseus Project extends its deepest thanks to John Herrmann, Mary Comstock, and Nancy Allen of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for making Web publication of these materials possible. Cataloging work was accomplished by Al Kaiser and edited by Amy Smith; David Smith and Jeff Rydberg-Cox provided new programming; and Maria Daniels made new photographs of the coins, using a high-end digital camera.

This catalog of ancient coins from the MFA represents the second phase of collaborative work by curatorial staff in Art of the Ancient World at the MFA and the Perseus Project. This phase, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and currently in progress, will culminate in an online publication of Roman art, with descriptions, pictures, and other educational resources. The publication will catalog over 1100 artworks, including sculpture, coins, jewelry, glass, gems, and pottery.

We welcome your feedback and any comments on how you are making use of these resources.

Please report any problems to the Perseus webmaster.