March 12, 2007

Rare Book Room Wow! In particular the site contains: 1. Some of the great books in science, including books by Galileo, Newton, Copernicus, Kepler, Einstein, Darwin and others. 2. Most of the Shakespeare Quartos from the British Library, the Bodleian Library, the Edinburgh Library, and the National Library of Scotland. It also contains the First Folio from the Folger Library. 3. The LIbrary of Congress ’ copies of Poor Richard ’s Almanac by Benjiman Franklin. 4. Very rare editions: Gutenberg ’s Bible of 1455, Harvey's book on the circulation of blood, Galileo ’s Siderius Nuncius, the first printing of the Bill of Rights, and the Magna Carta. Wheee! via MetaWhee
posted by petebest 17 years ago
  • I would kill for that Samuel de Champlain. Please let me kill for it...
  • Magna Carta (such small printing!) Bill of Rightf (in handy pocket-fold format!) For those of you too lazy to use the drop-down menus. And you know who you are.
  • I would also be pleased to recieve a copy of Atlas sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica by Geradus Mercator, at your earliest convenience. Yours very truly, Captain L. Renault
  • Can one of you brainiacical monkeys explain why, in the Bill of Rights, the "Article the third" is about free speech? And not the first?
  • But the digitized verfions just don't smell the same! *inhales monitor to no avail* I have an ongoing love affair with the aroma of old books...
  • petebest, the first two articles weren't ratified. So the 3rd one became the 1st Amendment. See here.
  • Ah. Ta very much!
  • ...the first two articles weren't ratified. So the 3rd one became the 1st... Funny...the same thing happened with the petebests.
  • Order! Order in the filter! *bam!* *bam!* *bam!*
  • the first two articles weren't ratified. So the 3rd one became the 1st Amendment. In case people don't read through that whole wiki article, the second one there actually WAS ratified, although not for over 200 years (No length of time was specified for how long it would remain open for ratification). It's the 27th amendment.
  • I wonder what font the Magna Carta is in.
  • Wisdom.
  • Is it true that the Magna Carta was never actually signed? I've been told folks didn't sign stuff back then: if the king said "Li reis le veult" a flunkey would slap a seal on the vellum and that was it.
  • Then what'd all those guys do in the woods back then? "Hey King! Read this!"?