Tuesday, January 8, 2008

St. Gall codices digitalized...(a la Cologne)

This looks like a first-class site, with excellent digital transfers of various texts. Here is the project description from the website:

'The purpose of the “Codices Electronici Sangallenses” (Digital Abbey Library of St. Gallen) is to provide access to the medieval codices in the Abbey Library of St. Gallen by creating a virtual library. The project will begin with a two-year pilot to digitally reproduce a selection of the finest illuminated codices at such a high resolution that researchers cannot only work with the manuscripts but also perform detailed (art historical or otherwise) analyses of the miniatures in the codices. Codex metadata (primarily scholarly descriptions of the codices) will be managed in a database system and referenced with the digitalised items through various access mechanisms. All these elements will constitute a single long-term tool for codex research that can potentially incorporate all the information on the individual codices. The tool can act as a partial substitute for direct examinations of the irreplaceable originals, thereby preserving them. At the same time, an intuitive, appealing internet presentation will communicate the medieval codex culture to a wider audience.'
Link: http://www.cesg.unifr.ch/en/

This project is meant to mirror a similar one for Cologne's archiepiscopal archive, at http://www.ceec.uni-koeln.de/

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