Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Manuscripts Online

News today that the Jewish National and University Library has made high definition digital images of all the pages of a 14th-century prayerbook, the Mahzor Nuremberg, available for viewing online. This codex is notable not only for its fine calligraphy and unique marginal commentaries, but also for its large size (50 x 37 cm, 1042 pages).

This news reminds me again of one of the remarkable benefits of the internet revolution that has made possible direct access, freely and world-wide, to one-of-a-kind texts. A leader in this field has been the British Library, whose Turning the Pages website offers complete views of more than a dozen works, including the Golden Haggadah, Baybar's Qur'an, and the Lindisfarne Gospels.

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