Speaking of American Libraries, wouldn’t it be nice if American Libraries Online had a URL that wasn’t ghastly? I guess that wasn’t one of the URLs that got fixed. There is a shorter URL, but it’s not shown anywhere on the site, or in the “cite this page” entry for the AL Online site, which is where I would expect to find it.
hi – 14feb
Hi. Getting this website standards compliant is rougher than I thought. Thanks to everyone who gave me good feedback on the library website. It should be ready to go live next week. I just finished reading a prepub copy of yet another book-about-books, this one a rare book mystery called Codex written by Lev Grossman. I recommend it. Also, happy birthday Peter Scott!
rare books a-go-go
So all this rare book reading and an impending trip to Yale has gotten me on a rare book kick of my own. First, Yale’s Beineke has not only a lovely library but an impressive online photonegative database.
voynich ms – what the hell?!
The Beineke holds the Voynich Manuscript, an illustrated mystery manuscript, written in no known text, which has remained undeciphered since it came to the attention of modern scholars early last century. It is “either an ingenious hoax or an unbreakable cipher“. More links here, more images here.
grossman’s article on voynich
And, to bring it full circle, Grossman wrote an article about the Voynich MS for Lingua Franca which, incidentally is out of business and all its old URLs point to the Chronicle of Higher Ed.