The Library has arranged a trial of Early European Books, a digitized collection of rare books and incunabula from The National Library of France, The National Library of Florence, The National Library of the Netherlands, The Wellcome Library, London, and the Royal Library, Denmark. Over 30,000 works are currently included, with new titles added regularly.
From the birth of printing to 1700, Early European Books aims to encompass all European printed material, (as well as material printed further afield but in European languages). The tool features page-level indexing that allows users to find pages that contain portraits, maps, handwritten notes, illustrations or other page features. Other features that facilitate research include:
- A tailored interface that provides powerful search options including thumbnail view of entire volume, sophisticated image viewer for panning, rotating and zooming, and multi-lingual interface.
- Incorporation of CERL Thesaurus that allows mapping and searching of historical and international variants for personal names (Horace, Quintus Horatius Flaccus, Orazio) and place names (Venezia, Venetiis, Venedig).
- References to bibliographic sources (i.e. Lauritz Nielson bibliography for Danish works), to help scholars to locate specific editions.
- Metadata from source libraries, including notes and subject headings where available
The trial ends May 30, 2014. You are welcome to leave your evaluative comments here or email them to me or to Claude Potts [cpotts [at] library.berkeley.edu].