Modelling the Middle Dutch prayer book (c. 1380-1550) the "Prayer" data model for manuscripts and early printed books

Prayer books – handwritten and printed – form the largest corpus of books in Middle Dutch. Hitherto, the size of and variety within the corpus was viewed as a barrier for research. The ERC Starting Grant project ‘Pages of Prayer’ takes advantage of exactly these features of the corpus to research the full ecosystem of Middle Dutch prayer books (c. 1380–1550) by studying all features of these books – from texts and decorations to producers and owners – in their mutual interdependence. This article presents the conceptual data model that forms the foundation of the project’s methodological approach. After introducing the project’s aims, this custom-made data model is discussed. The final section reflects on the practical realization of the data model as it was implemented in the data management system <em>Heurist</em> and discusses how we try to facilitate the reuse of the dataset and database by conforming to FAIR-principles.<br>