Digitisation has enabled us to take unique treasures and give them to the world for free, and created a new way of engaging in a process which is as old as language itself.
- Huw Jones
Cambridge’s Digital Library digitisation programme – in which rare and important texts are photographed and made available online – is part of a long tradition of the passing on of written knowledge.
Down the centuries, scholars have sought out texts for different purposes – to increase scientific understanding, to acquire knowledge developed by other cultures, or to promulgate a particular religious or political viewpoint. Initiatives like the Digital Library are making rare texts, which previously could only be seen by a limited number of people, accessible to all, and allowing readers to engage with them in an active way - zooming in on the tiniest detail, browsing entire documents quickly and easily, linking to related texts and further research, and sharing and discussing what they find online and in social media.
In the 13th century, scholars in the West were hungry for the knowledge that could be gleaned from the Greek speaking world, and one of the Digital Library’s newest additions is a wonderful example of how texts were sought out at that time. A beautiful item in itself, the story of MS Ff.1.24’s journey through the hands of various collectors and scholars, of how it was interpreted, annotated, translated and repackaged, and how digitisation enables the process of interpretation and transmission to still continue today and into the future, makes a fascinating tale.
Read the full story
Image Detail of Bishop Robert Grosseteste's handwriting on 10th century manuscript
Credit: Cambridge University Library
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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