Software makes historic books real page turners. – “We stopped into the Boston Athenaeum last week, sat down with the ''Sherborne Missal,'' and began to leaf through the pages. You know that book, right? It's an early 15th-century illuminated manuscript, with 690 21-by-14-inch vellum pages of gorgeously painted biblical and medieval English scenes. Recently acquired by the British Library for $24 million, it's rather pleasant to look at it close-up, turning the pages by hand.”
“OK, not the actual book, but something almost as good, and equally astonishing in its own way. A delegation from the British Library was in town demonstrating a new computerized display system called Turning the Pages, which allows anyone to ''virtually'' turn the pages of, so far, eight priceless manuscripts. With the e-Book, the Bookman, and other would-be successors to real books already headed for the dustbin of history, leave it to the Brits to think up a futuristic system that goes back to where books have been for 1,700 years. ''It's the closest most of us can get to turning the actual pages,'' says Michelle Brown, the British Library's curator of illuminated manuscripts.” (from The Boston Globe via LLRX) [Library Stuff]