Digital Text Libraries
Illuminated Manuscript
and Book Libraries
What is an Illuminated
Manuscript?
These links can help explain:
- The British Library (as ever excellent) offers this overview.
- The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent, offers this origin of the
illuminated manuscript.
Christian Text Libraries:
- This wonderful, three page 'Links Library' of Early
Christian Writers comes through the Diocese of Johannesburg, South
Africa. Links to everywhere, including many primary texts.
Homepage, http://www.catholic-jhb.org.za
- Glenn Gunhouse offers this fabulous resource through the
the-orb.net: a Parallel
Latin/English Psalter, where the text, in Latin and English,
appears side by side.
- Another site which offers an
English-Latin parallel
translation of the bible is http://www.latinvulgate.com/
where the Latin Vulgate Bible, the Douay-Rheims Bible, and King James
English Version are available side by side.
Illuminated Manuscript
Libraries:
- Medieval
Illuminated Manuscripts through the 'Medieval Illuminated
Manuscripts' from the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, or National Library of
the Netherlands, and the Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum.
- Though these are not illuminated manuscripts, the British
Library's collection of Early
Photographically Illustrated Books online are worth mentioning
here. These books were among the first to use photographs as
illustrations.
- Leaves of Gold Gallery. "Treasures of Manuscript
Illumination from Philadelphia Collections." From the
Philadelphia Museum of Art, the University of Pennsylvania, and the
Philadelphia Consortium of Special Collections Libraries.
- The
Bodleian Library, though the University of Oxford contains
manuscripts from a number of colleges and universities. Also
check the University of Oxford's image page, where many images are
available at a high resolution, http://image.ox.ac.uk/
- The French National Library (La Bibliothèque
nationale de France) has extensive collections of illustrated
manuscripts through to the victorian, and even modern period, from
their Lumieres
pages. French National Library homepage, http://www.bnf.fr/
- Terrific Manuscript
Links can be found though the Labyrinth,
http://labyrinth.georgetown.edu/
Digitized Books &
Literary Texts:
- No list of text libraries can be complete without mention
of
the-orb.net. This extensive database of primary texts throughout
history is an amazing cultural resource. The Orb Reference Shelf
will get you just about anywhere you ever wanted to go, including a
link to The
Internet Medieval Sourcebook, and the Labyrinth.
- ibiblio digital archive,
formerly Sunsite, comes to the web through the University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill. The site seeks to provide free and open
resources, a "collections of collections" on the Internet, [...]
including software, music, literature, art, history, science, politics,
and cultural studies."
- And, of course, the one and only--one of the first!--Bartleby.com "Great Books Online."
- Octavo.com is also
worth a peek. They also offer editions for sale.
-
Matthew Steggle's Early
Modern Literary
Studies page has links to many literary works, including those of
Edmund Spencer, William Shakespeare, Pliny, and Rene Descarte. He
includes many links to the University of Toronto's Representative
Poetry Online, pages, which are also a terrific resource.
- I liked this little site.
Not a mega collection, I
Remain focuses on digitizing letters and the written miscellany of
daily life. A wonderful idea, and a really interesting site
though Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.
- How
about this! The
Booke of the Courtyer (The Book of the Courtier), a book to
instruct would be courtiers on proper court behavior by Baldessar
Castilio, translated to English by Sir Thomas Hoby. This
book is available on the web through the University of Oregon's Renascence Editions,
which focuses on English texts from 1477 to 1799.
- The Digital
Bookfinder offers itself as a hub to deliver free material to
users. You have to log in to use it, though. Ick.
That's all for now.
:) There are really too many great book sites to list. But
this will get you started. Please feel
free to pass along any must-post e-book links. Thanks!
Some
E-Bookstores:
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to historyfish.net
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Fairhurst and historyfish.net, 2006
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