Scanned Images, Engravings and Pictures From Old Books

June 18, 2006 5:11 PM

Scanned Images, Engravings and Pictures From Old Books.
[via Matthew White's History Topic of the Week or Month or Something]

Over a thousand images from old, public domain books, scanned by Liam Quin. Some favorites of mine are Discourse into the Night, The Catacombs of Naples, A Potter Thumping His Wet Clay, A Writer, with a Castle in the Background and Grotesque Head.
posted by Kattullus (24 comments total)

Really nice collection of images, thanks. Also, there is much goodness of many flavours to be found on Matthew White's site; his Atlas of the Twentieth Century is fantastic, and I found his wikipedia watch most amusing and insightful, particularly his declaration, "Any system of knowledge that is capable of listing films in order of use of the word fuck is incapable of writing a good summary and analysis of the Philippine-American War. And vice-versa. This is an inviolable rule."
posted by MetaMonkey at 6:07 PM on June 18, 2006

This is great!
posted by brundlefly at 6:11 PM on June 18, 2006

As is the via link, as well! Thanks!
posted by brundlefly at 6:14 PM on June 18, 2006

as well Damnit.
posted by brundlefly at 6:19 PM on June 18, 2006

Marvelous! A treasure! Thank you!
posted by nickyskye at 6:26 PM on June 18, 2006

Great stuff, thank you. Now I'm off to thump my wet clay.
posted by marxchivist at 6:30 PM on June 18, 2006

The page from the Canting Dictionary is awesome (so is the rest of the site), thanks!
posted by squeak at 6:31 PM on June 18, 2006

Amazingly good.

Also, I was impressed that Writer, with a Castle in the Background so accurately portrayed me at work.
posted by Ritchie at 6:33 PM on June 18, 2006

I clicked on the comments link for this thread strictly to see how long it would take someone to make the thumping the wet clay joke. MeFi didn't disappoint.
posted by Zinger at 6:55 PM on June 18, 2006

Zinger, Marxchivist: I set 'em up, you knock 'em down.

MetaMonkey, brundlefly: Matthew White's homepage is one of my all-time favorite sites on the internet.
posted by Kattullus at 7:25 PM on June 18, 2006

Awesome. Thanks for the post.
posted by joe lisboa at 7:38 PM on June 18, 2006

¡Bueno!
posted by taosbat at 7:44 PM on June 18, 2006

This is great.
Thank you!
posted by thatwhichfalls at 7:55 PM on June 18, 2006

This is fantastic! Excellent post!
posted by LeeJay at 8:24 PM on June 18, 2006

Great stuff! Thanks. The grotesque head reminded me of one of the fountains in Rome (self link). I liked the quote in the details:

“The idea of a jet of water issuing from the human mouth has, even when treated by the most refined artists, something of a repugnant character..."
posted by Staggering Jack at 8:33 PM on June 18, 2006

See also BibliOdyssey for the same type of thing, scans from old books in blog format.
posted by stbalbach at 9:03 PM on June 18, 2006

Not just pictures, a canting dictionary [beard splitter]. Very nice! thanks Kattullus.
posted by tellurian at 9:38 PM on June 18, 2006

Thanks for the link, stbalbach. Definitely bookmarked.
posted by brundlefly at 9:39 PM on June 18, 2006

These are wonderful! Good post.
posted by renraw at 12:38 AM on June 19, 2006

Matthew White's homepage is one of my all-time favorite sites on the internet.

Duly bookmarked, with thanks.
posted by languagehat at 5:51 AM on June 19, 2006

Try Giornale Nuovo also.
posted by GeorgeBickham at 6:46 AM on June 19, 2006

The car of the future from 1905 is a steampunk hoot. Thanks for this.
posted by mediareport at 7:42 AM on June 19, 2006

YES! Great ressource für designers and artists! Thanks!
posted by homodigitalis at 8:09 AM on June 19, 2006

So this is where Trader Joe's gets the images for its labels...
posted by BrotherCaine at 6:57 PM on June 19, 2006