Comments on: Conrad Gessner's Historiae Animalium

Conrad Gessner's Historiae Animalium

Kattullus — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 10:07:28 -0800

A virtual copy of Historiae Animalium, the first pictorial catalogue of the animal world (lots of pretty pictures, but the text is all in latin). It was compiled in the 16th century by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner, who is considered the father of zoology (and, incidentally, also the father of bibliography [Word Document]).

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 10:17:13 -0800

The technology used here is "Turning the Pages" which was developed by The British Library and is now being licensed to libraries around the world - we should start seeing a flood of old books come online in this format over the next couple years. Here is a video about it. Apparently Windows Vista will make it even better, but not sure how.

By: misteraitch

misteraitch — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 10:30:20 -0800

Cool! thanks Kattullus: I see they also have Ambroise Paré's Ouevres perusable in the same format. Slightly confusingly, 'Ambroise Paré's Ouevres' is also the title on the Gessner page.

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 10:41:31 -0800

This is exceptionally good, thank you. I really enjoyed the fantastical animal illustrations.

By: ND¢

ND¢ — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 10:47:45 -0800

I loved both the interface and the unicorn. Thanks.

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 10:57:07 -0800

Where's the website for people what thinks de Quadripedibus is scary?

By: serazin

serazin — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 10:57:17 -0800

Excellent. This kind of interface feels so much more accessible than other ebook formats. Until us dinosaur book-readers die out, I imagine this will be a major way for people to read books on their computers. The book itself is fantastic as well. And thanks for the context on who he was.

By: serazin

serazin — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 10:58:48 -0800

Having said that, the site seems to get 'stuck' a lot.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 11:04:38 -0800

This is awesome.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 11:06:28 -0800

The elephant is bizarre.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 11:08:25 -0800

If you don't happen to have Vista (or XP with SP2 and .NET3) this Microsoft blog post gives some idea what the interface could look like. Stuff like the page weight and material collapsing on itself in a realistic manner, textured surfaces, light glinting off gold leaf, etc..

By: carter

carter — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 11:26:49 -0800

Nice, thanks Kattallus!

By: steef

steef — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 11:31:47 -0800

Good post. Here's the Turning the Pages™ site.

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 11:44:10 -0800

Nice. Is there any way to capture images with this interface?

By: janell

janell — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 11:46:07 -0800

Why is the rhino wearing clothes? Nice post, btw.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 11:54:40 -0800

The standard explanation, janell, comes from Rudyard Kipling's How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 12:23:00 -0800

Fantastic site and post—thanks!

By: Chinese Jet Pilot

Chinese Jet Pilot — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 12:43:50 -0800

It's fascinating how the creatures of the unexplored sea are much more fanciful than those on the land (except maybe for the sea serpent?).

By: sicem07

sicem07 — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 12:52:00 -0800

Fantastic interface. Am I the only one who felt like I was playing Myst?

By: bonehead

bonehead — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 12:54:01 -0800

Use note: If you click on the "T" on the upper left, you get a short english summary of each set of pages.

By: peacay

peacay — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 13:38:31 -0800

OmieWise: 'control-PrintScreen' takes a screen capture; then paste into an image program. Or you could simply go to the Keio University site which have (I think) larger jpeg images of the Gesner book, if the gimmickry of flash TTP is, as it is for me, annoying, unnecessary, restrictive and a general resources hog with little in the way of compensation (simulation of pages turning is a manifestation of life I can imagine without having to see it reproduced online: it is a redundant feature). I believe all that energy could be put to better use by serving up larger images or hosting more books. And yes, I know the counterarguments and yes, I have my own selfserving interest in a way (which also translates as extensive user experience), but it's a presentation style that should not be encouraged IMHO: I don't believe adding some flash sparkle to an illumination in a manuscript is even necessary if large image files are available (or as a bandwidth alternative, sections of high resolution images). If you look at sites like Oxford University's medieval manuscripts, it shows what internet technology really has to offer -- you can see such clarity and detail of stroke pressure and thickness of paints and inks that you can understand how the pages were made and by how many hands etc --- you can't see this detail sitting in the room with the manuscript unless you have some magnifying device. I'm just saying... Thanks for the post Kattullus. Love Gesner.

By: peacay

peacay — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 13:55:08 -0800

Oh, I beg your pardon - NLM have large jpeg images ('gallery of images') available for each of the TTP book from this page. In which case I withdraw any implied slur against NLM - having both types of media available is commendable.

By: kuujjuarapik

kuujjuarapik — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:16:46 -0800

Anno M. D. LI. This is the coolest thing I've seen in a while. Thanks.

By: LarryC

LarryC — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:03:48 -0800

Fantastic post--you rock. Nice. Is there any way to capture images with this interface? Omie, that was my first thought as well. I started going through a whole print-to-PDF work around, then realized that there is an image gallery for each book. This scary old Latin beaver will be gracing my next lecture on the fur trade.

By: janell

janell — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 20:36:40 -0800

Thanks for the explanation about the rhino's skin, Kattullus. Gave me a few a chuckles.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 22:21:35 -0800

This is great. Thanks, Kattullus.

By: BlackLeotardFront

BlackLeotardFront — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 00:00:32 -0800

Great, wish I could get my hands on a hard copy. Anybody remember that book that's kind of like this but the animals are totally fake and the writing is like gibberish? It got posted here a couple.... years ago.

By: aeschenkarnos

aeschenkarnos — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 02:39:44 -0800

BlackLeotardFront, I'm not sure what book you're thinking of, but the description could fit the Voynich Manuscript or the Codex Seraphinianus.

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 05:10:14 -0800

Ah, thanks for the links to the image galleries.

By: BlackLeotardFront

BlackLeotardFront — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 01:22:00 -0800

bullseye, aeschenkarnos, it was the Codex Seraphinianus. Thanks a lot!