The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

August 1, 2005 8:08 PM

Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library's online collection of digital images -over 90,000 of them. A vast labyrinth of high resolution digital images and photo negatives from thousands of rare books and manuscripts. Search by keyword to access scans sorted by category. Find one you like and click on the call number to bring up all images from that title. Searching for "illustrations" brings up 31 pages of scans from hundreds of titles. Examine 16th century mechanical illustrations by Georg Agricola, two full pages of photo negatives from William Blake's Jerusalem, a collection of artwork demonstrating knightly protocol ("medieval" is another keyword search yielding a bonanza of good stuff), and so much more. The interface leaves something to be desired but the sheer amount of works available for viewing makes it all worth it.
posted by LeeJay (12 comments total)

I've been in a rare book sort of mood for the last week. I'm two days into this collection and have only scratched the surface.
posted by LeeJay at 8:10 PM on August 1, 2005

Oh. So. Good. ...and Thank you, LeeJay.
posted by Dunvegan at 8:13 PM on August 1, 2005

This is awesome.
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:19 PM on August 1, 2005

So much more is right. Wow.

This one is absolutely allegoricalicious! ...or maybe the guy was just bad at drawing legs? Anyway, terrific stuff so far, and I've only scratched the surface. Thanks!
posted by soyjoy at 8:29 PM on August 1, 2005

Some truly cool stuff... thanks much for the post.

Some DADA/futurist stuff I've never seen before. And so much more... thanks again!
posted by trip and a half at 8:55 PM on August 1, 2005

Oops, since you've spent two days to scratch the surface, I should say I've only hinted at beginning to scratch the surface! What a trove.
posted by soyjoy at 9:08 PM on August 1, 2005

soyjoy, I thought that was MeFi (or perhaps MeTa) in the middle ages?
Brilliant post thank you LeeJay.
posted by peacay at 1:54 AM on August 2, 2005

I once had the rare oportunity to be given a tour of the "behind the scenes" areas at the Brown University Library, where I learned of all the amazing and rare things that are housed there, mostly unknown to the generations of students passing through trying to complete this or that assignment.

This post reminded me of that wonderful day. Thank you.
posted by anastasiav at 5:19 AM on August 2, 2005

You can almost smell the vellum.

LeeJay, you get my vote for best post of the day. Thanks!
posted by steef at 5:35 AM on August 2, 2005

LeeJay, great post. Thanks a lot for it. Truly the best of the web.
posted by OmieWise at 6:12 AM on August 2, 2005

This is fabulous - the Blake alone would be enough but no, there's more! And more!
posted by mygothlaundry at 8:08 AM on August 2, 2005

This is also the location of the famous Voynich Manuscript, aka MS 408. I am certain this book has been discussed on Mefi before, but here are a few links anyway. Verrrrrrry innnnterresting (or so I think.) Wikipedia.
posted by zoinks at 12:45 PM on August 2, 2005