In the UK the British Library launched Turning the Pages™ 2.0 at the Windows Vista launch event. Bill Gates took the stage with Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library, to compare his Leonardo Codex Leicester to the British Library’s Codex Arundel – the codices reunited for the first time in almost 500 years.
“Turning the Pages™ 2.0 is a toolkit that allows libraries and museums to put entire collections of books online in a compelling 3D environment, with a suite of useful tools to aid learning. Developed with the British Library, it is available as a service for institutions and private collectors around the world. It’s a true next-generation web application, taking advantage of the latest web technologies.”
I tried it and opened up ‘The Golf Book’ (Flemish masters in miniature) and was definitely impressed with the experience. There’s some magic to paging such an antique book, fully with audio comments if you want.
For the moment the ‘library’ holds 16 works of art including books like Mercator atlas of Europe, Mozart’s musical diary, Andreas Vesalius’ De Humani Corporis Fabrica, William Blake’s notebook, … I’m also very proud to see that next to the The Golf Book, we have 2 other Flemish present with Mercator and Vesalius.
Technorati tags: vesalius, mercator, da vinci, mozart, gates, vista, microsoft, british library, turn the page
'Cross The Breeze 