Oxford University, Vatican libraries to digitize works

Reuters ^ | 04/11/2012 | Paul Casciato

[iowamark]

The Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford and the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (BAV) said on Thursday they intended to digitize 1.5 million pages of ancient texts and make them freely available online.

The libraries said the digitized collections will centre on three subject areas: Greek manuscripts, 15th-century printed books and Hebrew manuscripts and early printed books.

The areas have been chosen for the strength of the collections in both libraries and their importance for scholarship in their respective fields...

The initiative has been made possible by a 2 million pound ($3.17 million) award from the Polonsky Foundation.

"The service to humanity which the Vatican Library has accomplished over almost six centuries, by preserving its cultural treasures and making them available to readers, finds here a new avenue which confirms and amplifies its universal vocation through the use of new tools, thanks to the generosity of the Polonsky Foundation and to the sharing of expertise with the Bodleian Libraries," Holy See Librarian Cardinal Raffaele Farina said.

[Dr. Sivana]

They better do it before the copyright laws get extended to cover them!

[muawiyah]

This is great news for historians and genealogists.

[Savage Beast]

Just in case someone doesn’t know it, GoogleBooks has copied many old an obscure texts and made them available online. I have found things that I would never have found otherwise.

[muawiyah]

You can find things you didn't know exist ~ and neither did anyone else.

Local histories are showing up on the internet. Not a big thing but I've found folks posting things written in old Bibles and journals that are definitely history changers.

Today I finally figured out that the first Lutheran Church in Schoharie New York was NOT a German church. It was an ELC, Evangelical Lutheran church, which has more Scandinavian roots than German ~ and had Swedish preachers (Hooparties). About 1739 it even saw an overwhelming influx of Swedes (probably from York PA). By 1785 the minister was marrying a young woman from Sweden with advanced university studies!

Been looking real carefully at the existing records of that area and can find only a couple of Dutch surnames.

At one time this was considered a hard core Dutch locale.

[rovenstinez]

Now, if we can just get Barak Obama to put his records ON LINE.

[SunkenCiv]

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