The past three years, the Dead Sea scrolls have been photographed and are now open to be studied on GOOGLE as part of our common CH by everybody who is interested.
I propose to get photographs of every Illuminated handwritten manuscript Text and Image and cover (in short all the pages) which is stored in Libraries of the Vatican, Santa Catharina in the Sinai, the Jesuit collection in Prague and the royal Denmark, Sweden and UK collections and in other museums allover the world.
Public as well as private money will be available, as GOOGLE found the necessary budget in case of the Dead Sea scrolls. The European Community will also contribute since the manuscripts are part of its own common CH.
It would give security to the manuscripts to be preserved as photographs and it would be easier for researchers to have access to these writings in pdf-format.
Hello, Jan!!!
It is a great idea to be able to see these manuscripts on the web, not only to the few can visit the places were those collections are stored or displayed. But I believe if you have the images without transcripts of the texts and without information on the type os illustration, the diverse preparation of the parchment, about the calligraphic types and styles, and about the culture that made them they will just be exotic illustrations no body ill have the joy to understand. These manuscripts need explanation to help the viewer to appreciate them full. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (USA) offer many books on manuscripts, Indian carpets, Chinese drawings, etc. in beautifully-illustrated books, written by experts. Those books are free. You ca pick and choose. Here, two examples and the link to free art books at the MET.
Here is the link to the MET:
http://www.metmuseum.org/research/metpublications/titles-with-full-text-online?searchtype=F
Here are some books by the MET and of their collections:
The attached paper may provide you some information on this aspect
Lilliana and Yogesh,
Sincere thanks for the comments and URLs you sent.
What I had in mind is not only the "nice images" which are works of art, but I intended the entire manuscript, text and image and all, even the cover..
IO will try whether it is possible to edit my original question, because that is what I had in mind. cordially, Jan
Jan, thank you. I will be waiting because I am very interested in people having quality access to all kinds of art. and even better if they can hace an educational experience with beautiful or interesting things of which people know nothing about. Best regards!
Mark, Your note indicates that something has to be done and I thought that the parchment and Papyrus and paper manuscripts would be a good start.
You are absolutely right that info about flint, fossils, insects and much more is still in the paper-age and should make it as soon as possible to the cloud, picasa, Google images and otherwise-Age.
But, somebody has to make a start and we cannot wait until "digital media haven't stood the test of time yet" has been proven. The latter may take some time and time in our case is precious.
In fact, my question wanted to deal with Cultural Heritage as a whole, but I chose Parchment etc. as a starter.
I forgot this question of mine altogether; a lot of time has passed since then.
Nevertheless, I still think that it highly time to scan/photograph illuminated parchment sheets to preserve it for posterity.
In Prague, some time ago, the river that crosses the city flooded and the Manuscripts of the Jesuites were all attacked by water. Most of them ended up in family refrigerators after which they were placed into a large German-made refrigerator until restorers can bring the manuscripts back in the state before the flood.
In order to play it safe, I think it is the time to scan every item which is illuminated,because you never know. Also photographs, digital ones, do not cost anything as compared to printed film photos of Kodak and Agfa. It can be done in a few months if we talk about all the illuminated manuscripts of an entire museum or library. Just do it before it is too late, You never know what kind of disaster can hit and thus, as we in Israel we made photos of all the fragments of the Dead Sea scrolls, which was done by Google, so every country can take care of its cultural parchment heritage.
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