Conceptual Model

A model for describing written heritage scientifically

Most heritage databases record what an object is. ManuSpectrum records what happened to it — and who said so. Every measurement is an event with a date, an instrument and an operator. Every interpretation is stored separately from the observation that supports it. That separation is what lets you re-read someone else's conclusion — and disagree with it.

01 · Abstraction

Three levels of abstraction

Ontology

Semantic foundation: CIDOC-CRM v7.1.2 (ISO 21127) and its CRMsci extension for scientific observation.

Models

12 independent models linked by 73 typed CIDOC relationships — so a person recorded once as an analyst is the same record when they reappear as a volume's owner.

Vocabularies

Controlled values referencing normalized thesauri: Getty AAT, Pactols, AGORHA, LOTERRE.

The terms on this page, in plain words

CIDOC-CRM: The international reference ontology (ISO 21127) for describing cultural heritage — a shared vocabulary so that databases can understand each other.
CRMsci: Its extension for scientific observation: measurements, samples, instruments.
Thesaurus: A published, curated list of terms (pigments, techniques…) that fields draw from instead of free text — so a search for “vermilion” finds every record, however it was typed.
Datatype: The kind of value a field stores: text, a thesaurus concept, a date, a file, a link to another record…
Field group: Fields recorded together as one small form — an address, a dating, a measurement with its unit. (Arches calls this a “nodegroup”.)

02 · Resource map

Twelve models, four families

Nothing is described twice. An actor, a place or an instrument is recorded once and referenced everywhere it appears — so the person who ran an XRF scan in 2024 is the same record as the volume's eighteenth-century owner, if they happen to be the same person.

Studied object

Document → Component · Sample

Observation · CRMsci

Analysis → Characterization

Shared context

Actor · Place · Project · Instrument

Transformations

Alteration · Modification

Explore the model interactively

03 · Granularity

Granularity of the model

42% of fields draw on a published thesaurus, not free text — 193 of 465

49 CIDOC-CRM / CRMsci classes — every entity maps to ISO 21127

73 typed relationships across 12 interconnected models

~6,281 concepts from Getty AAT, Pactols, AGORHA and LOTERRE

Technical detail

170 field groups · 600 nodes (465 of them data) · 80 ontology properties · 38 thesauri.

04 · Thought schema

Two timelines, one pivot

An event-based trajectory rather than a static object-attribute schema. Two timelines run at different speeds and meet on a single object.

The object's life centuries

Productionmade: parchment, ink, binding
Modificationdeliberate: rebinding, restoration
Alterationundergone: corrosion, fading, damp

Pivot Component The material component is what both timelines describe: the thing that was made and altered, and the thing that was sampled and measured.

The research act days — present day

Samplingwhat was examined, and where on the object
Analysisthe measurement: instrument, operator, date
Characterizationthe interpretation — stored apart from the measurement

05 · Vocabularies

Thesauri mobilised

Getty AAT Frantiq Pactols AGORHA LOTERRE TAPAC / Frollo