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1.5 Million Pages of Ancient Manuscripts Online
New submitter LordWabbit2 sends this quote from an AP report:
"The Vatican Library and Oxford University's Bodleian Library have put the first of 1.5 million pages of ancient manuscripts online. The two libraries in 2012 announced a four-year project to digitize some of the most important works of their collections of Hebrew manuscripts, Greek manuscripts and early printed books. Among the first up on the site Tuesday, are the two-volume Gutenberg bibles from each of the libraries and a beautiful 15th-century German bible, hand-colored and illustrated by woodcuts. ... The Vatican Library was founded in 1451 and is one of the most important research libraries in the world. The Bodleian is the largest university library in Britain."
Why polish back then?
The Vatican Library was founded in 1451 and is one of the most important research libraries in the world. The Bodleian is the largest university library in Britain
Theer used to be a HUGE library, but unfortunately some motherfucking camel jocky burned it down, in the name of "Allah" !
Can we get Daniel Jackson to translate them?
This is a pretty awesome project. I took a look at the German bible and nerdgasmed a bit upon seeing the umlauts in original form. ^_^
And they're all available only in Comic Sans.
what if I do not read "ancient"?
Absolutely no respect for copyright. If I was a descendant of the families who wrote these documents, I would be demanding compensation!
No amount of Slashdottery will take the awesome out of this.
The images of the ancient texts are marked "Copyright Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana".
Copyright is seriously out of control. People don't even know what it is any more.
...
Of course most of the Vatican Hebrew docs are surely either plundered from European Jews or possibly though not likely survive the Roman plunder of the Jewish temple and and ethnic cleansing of the previous state of Israel. This area was renamed Syria Palestina or Palestine to take the Jewish name from the land creating the eternal (until the 40's) European Jewish refugee problem in the first place.
Nice to see them sharing online while retaining possession, not unlike how they retain possession to this day of synagogues in Spain and Portugal that were confiscated and turned into churches by holy mandate.
Once upon a time there was a wise and kindly King. In order to protect his subjects, he built a large wall completely around the palace and the town. Surrounding the wall was a deep moat with but one gate through the wall and a single bridge over the moat. Many years passed and the Kingdom and it's people prospered.
One day, however, there came to live under the bridge, the DREADED YELLOW FINGERS. This was an evil monster that would pluck unsuspecting persons from the bridge, and pull them below the waters of the moat never to be seen again.
A great fear came over the people, and the King ordered his knights to slay the DREADED YELLOW FINGERS. One by one they attempted to rid the kingdom of the menace, and one by one they were defeated. Soon the fields were overgrown, the flocks were running wild, and the food supply in the town had dwindled to almost nothing. In desperation the King offered the hand of his daughter to the one who could rid the town of the DREADED YELLOW FINGERS. More tried, and more were lost.
One day, a young Page boy came to the King and said that he would like to try. The King thought the boy foolish, and attempted to dissuade him, but the boy persisted. Finally the King gave in, and the boy walked out the gate. He crossed the bridge without a sign of the monster. He crossed back and forth several more times with the same result.
He presented himself to the King, and asked for the hand of the King's daughter. Overjoyed, the King assented but asked, "How were you able to do what many older and more experienced knights were not able to do? It was easy, the boy replied,
"JUST LET YOUR PAGES DO THE WALKING THROUGH THE YELLOW FINGERS."
We can crowdsource all the Dan Brown clues-hidden-by-the-ancients malarky and discover thousands of Holy Grails, Atlantises, Lemurias, El Dorados, Alien Saucers etc.
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
Goodness me, don't tell me they could not find more important works to save than bibles. These subversive books should not be lightly discarded, they should be carefully disposed of in toxic waste incinerators.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
That's all we need, providing everyone with still more access to ancient text.
Two Paragraph spoiler summary if you want the CliffNotes version.
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
Hmmm, if I've got this correct, the item I just read says: "Pound pastrami, can kraut, six bagels—bring home for Emma."
I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
Wish it was a bit easier to find the actual text. It would have also been cool to see the pages side by side. But still this is way cool.
Does it have the missing first page from the bible that reads:
"Dedicated to my loving wife Sarah.
The stories contained herein are fictional, any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental."
The one and only line-by-line English translation of Mahabharata, by Ganguli, a three decade effort stretching from 1860 to 1890, is on the public domain and can be downloaded for free. Very difficult to read, extremely voluminous. But there things some mind boggling stuff there.
For example, while describing the reign of Emperor Dushyant, it says, "In his days there were no farmers, there were no miners". Is it the folk memory of the days of hunter/gatherers/herders as remembered by later generations of farmers? Does "no miners" means it was a neolithic stone age culture? I have seen scholarly articles arguing that "the story of Cain and Abel is clearly the folk memory of the conflict between herders and farmers". But there is not much of work done on Mahabharata.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I had no idea that ancient Hebrews had document scanners.
You are welcome on my lawn.
We'll summon the Old Ones yet!
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It says: "Any similarity to persons dead or alive is purely coincidental."
The Vatican Library is not for "research," it is for brainwashing.
I mean, there's one of the eight copies of that manuscript by Abdul Alhazrad there....
mark
The Gutenberg Bible can be viewed here.
The beautiful colour woodcuts in Stamp.Ross.283 can be viewed here.