PROJECTS OF THE IUA

The Index was initiated in 1971 with the work on Hebrew illuminated manuscripts in Israel and France, as a project of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris. Later two additional Academies joined the project, the Unione Accademica Nazionale in Rome, and Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab of Copenhagen. The Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts in the British Isles, published in 1982 in two volumes, in conjunction with the British Academy, laid the foundations for extending the Index to the collection of manuscripts in the British Isles.

Since its establishment, the Index of Jewish Art has published six volumes in card form, presenting each scene on a separate card with a photograph. All volumes were computerized and indexed according to their subjects. The Subject Index, the heart of the project, has references to literary as well as to iconographic elements.

Since 1982, the Index of Jewish Art has been broadened to include other media of Jewish art from antiquity to the contemporary period. The Index now incorporates five sections: Ancient Jewish Art; Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts ; Ritual and Sacred Objects ; Modern Jewish Art; and Architecture.

A new system of computerization has recently been devised to incorporate both textual and visual documentation. The new system will enable a new kind of dissemination, (namely on-line accessibility, CD Rom, or traditional publications).

The project was adopted by the UAI in 1979 on the initiative of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities as a Category C project.

Directed by the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Directors : B. Narkiss and G. Sed-Rajna 1979-, A. Cohen-Mushlin

Web site : http://www.hum.huji.ac.il/cja/