Wikidata

For all other subject material not covered by Nomisma, VIAF, Pleiades, etc., Wikipedia articles are an invaluable resource for historical context--especially with regard to historical events which are often referred to or depicted on coinage or mentioned in ebooks. Wikidata.org is a data backend of Wikipedia that has sought to aggregate articles about subjects in various languages under a single unique identifier, which can also be linked to unique identifiers in other vocabulary systems. These systems include all those mentioned previously, including Nomisma.org.

How to Search

There is a keyword search on the Wikidata home page that will autosuggest as you type. Clicking on the suggested subject will direct you to the URI for the subject, e.g., https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1405, the unique identifier for all Wikipedia articles about the Roman Emperor, Augustus. If you scroll toward the bottom of this page, you will encounter a list of identifiers, which will include Nomisma, VIAF, the Getty Union List of Artist Names, and many others.

If you have difficulty finding a subject through the Wikidata search, you can access the Wikidata URI directly from the Wikipedia article itself. The link is "Wikidata item" under Tools in the left-hand sidebar.