Information resources and technologies provider ProQuest, US, has announced that Early European Books, ProQuest's programme to digitise the archives of landmark European libraries, has taken another leap forward with its latest release, expanding the number and range of rare early modern books available through the online service. Debuting now are the first installment of digitised books from the National Library of the Netherlands and further content from the National Central Library of Florence.
The number of digitised books - now more than 6,500 - will grow rapidly throughout the balance of 2011 and into 2012 as more libraries join the programme. Digitisation has already begun at the Wellcome Library in London, and works from this renowned collection of medical and scientific books will be added to the database in the fall.
Although the National Central Library of Florence is well known for its holdings of Italian literary and religious texts and early editions of the Classics, this release also includes many important examples of printing from the German-speaking towns that pioneered printing in the 15th century.
The collection from Florence includes works printed throughout Western Europe, from foundational texts of Classical literature (Aesop, Ovid, Virgil) to medieval writers such as the 9th-century Persian scholar Albumasar (Flores astrologiae, Augsburg, 1488) and the Spanish-born Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides, through to the leading Humanist and theological authors of the 15th and 16th centuries. The texts from the Netherlands give an insight into this crucial period in which the Dutch Republic was formed and grew to be a major world power.
Scholars of fine art and book history will find many examples of the printer's craft from both these library collections. All volumes have been digitised in high-resolution colour, including all pages, endpapers, fold-outs and bindings, to give as detailed and vivid a view of the source document as possible.
Inspired by ProQuest's flagship Early English Books Online, the aim of Early European Books is to build a comprehensive library of European printed books from the birth of printing in the 1450s to the year 1700. This long-term project will grow over the years by digitising the entire rare book holdings of Europe's major national and specialist research libraries.
Current content is taken from three major national repositories – the Danish Royal Library, the National Library of the Netherlands and the National Central Library of Florence – and content will soon be added from the renowned collection of medical and scientific texts held by the Wellcome Library in London.
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