CVMA Digital Archive: Over 32,000 Medieval Stained Glass Records Now Available with IIIF Viewer

ATRIUM is delighted to announce via the ARIADNE Research Infrastructure and our partner the Archaeology Data Service the addition of more than 32,000 records from the Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi (CVMA) Digital Archive to the ARIADNE Catalogue , marking a significant milestone for medieval glass researchers and digital humanities scholars.

This development represents a double achievement: it brings a substantial collection of medieval stained glass documentation into the catalogue, but also introduces an embedded IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework) viewer. This new functionality allows users to view images at significantly higher resolution by clicking the link under the new “Iiif” option above the Images section.

About the CVMA Collection

Founded in 1949, the Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi is an international research initiative dedicated to recording medieval stained glass. With national committees in Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain with Catalonia, Switzerland, and the United States, plus associate committees in Portugal and Russia, the CVMA publishes comprehensive catalogues featuring illustrations, colour plates, and detailed commentaries of elements often difficult to examine in situ.

The CVMA Picture Archive, digitised between 1999 and 2004, hosts over 28,000 images of stained glass. The English database, hosted by the Archaeology Data Service, includes remarkable examples primarily from churches and chapels across England and Wales. Approximately half of the images derive from CVMA’s own archive, currently held by Historic England, which was scanned by HEDS Digitisation services during a pilot programme in 1999. Beyond medieval stained glass, the database encompasses the Birkin Haward collection of Victorian stained glass in Norfolk and Suffolk, as well as ground-plans of nearly 200 churches courtesy of the Lambeth Palace Library Collection.

Enhanced Functionality Through ATRIUM

The integration of the IIIF viewer into the ARIADNE Catalogue represents an important advancement developed as part of the ATRIUM project. This enhancement expands the range of content types that make up archaeological resources, including images, texts, 3D models, and sound recordings. Users can now examine fine details of medieval stained glass works with unprecedented clarity, enabling more thorough analysis and comparison of artistic techniques, iconography, and conservation states.

The IIIF viewer also supports advanced features such as user annotations and side-by-side comparisons. Researchers will be able to place manuscript art and Anglo-Saxon sculpture motifs alongside one another, facilitating cross-media scholarly analysis and the identification of artistic influences and patterns across different medieval art forms.

Archive Features and Resources

The CVMA Digital Archive offers an advanced search interface alongside an interactive map that displays the number and location of stained glass window images within the database, making it easier for researchers to locate materials relevant to their studies.

The archive’s Downloads section provides access to rare and out-of-print works that are invaluable to researchers. This includes detailed documentation for major windows at Gloucester, Lincoln, and Winchester Cathedrals, as well as scholarly theses examining topics such as 19th-century paint loss and influential work on Midlands glass painting. Key conservation literature is also available, including English translations of foundational German texts and CVMA international guidelines.

Additional downloadable resources cover CVMA history, archives of G. King & Son (a Norwich-based stained glass workshop), digital publications on Norfolk stained glass, roundels, the Bristol Colloquium booklet, York City churches, and documentation on the establishment of the CVMA in Great Britain.

Accessing the Collection

The CVMA collection can be easily accessed through the ARIADNE Catalogue by entering “CVMA” into the text search box or by selecting “Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi” from the Contributors filter. This streamlined access ensures that researchers can quickly locate relevant materials for their studies.

For more information about the collection, visit the Archaeology Data Service or the CVMA website .