Digitized rare books (off-topic)

[Harry Binswanger hb@xxxxxxxx]

Given the values of most members on this list, I thought
the following, pulled from another list,
would be of interest.

Harry Binswanger
hb@xxxxxxxx

>From: Stephen Speicher
>
>I have found such a wonderful treasure and I want to make you all
>aware of it.
>
>A company, Octavo, is making antiquarian books available in
>digital format. They photograph rare first editions, at a very
>high resolution, and release them in Adobe Portable Document
>Format (PDF) files. If you are not familiar with PDF files, rest
>assured, there are free Adobe Acrobat Reader's available for most
>computers. The reader allows you to scan through the books, page
>by page, and click for an English translation if necessary. The
>reader allows you to do complex searches on the book text as well
>as copy and paste text and graphics.
>
>The image quality of these rare books is exquisite. Talking about
>Galileo's 1610 Book 'Sidereus Nuncius' (The Sidereal Messenger),
>a friend of mine, who is interested in printing, said that they
>have "photographed this original first edition from outside
>covers to every page inside in amazing detail--down to the grain
>of the paper! In the highest resolution, you can zoom to 800% and
>examine the impact of the lead type into the paper and see the
>finest detail in the engravings (or woodcuts??)." Reading
>Galileo's observations of the moon and the planets and seeing his
>drawings of the same is thrilling, to say the least.
>
>Just a few of the books currently available are:
>
>Newton's 'Opticks'
>Franklin's 'Experiments and Observations on Electricity'
>Hooke's 'Micrographia'
>Shakespeare's 'Poems'
>Vesalius' 'De Humani Corporis Fabrica'
>
>Octavo has a website (http://www.Octavo.com) where you can learn
>about the company's products and even download samples of the
>books for your perusal. The samples are not 'full featured' but
>they can give you a first hand experience of these exquisite
>books. I have ordered several of the CD's, and the prices are
>very reasonable.
>

Harry Binswanger
hb@xxxxxxxx