Re: Digitized rare books (off-topic)

["Richard A. Sherer" rasherer@xxxxxxxx]

Tison,
Is this the one you were telling me about some time ago? Or was it Sylvia
Tiersten who told me?
R

At 04:00 AM 9/2/98 -0400, you wrote:
>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
>