Turning the Pages

Turning the Pages is a wonderful website which is part of the British Library's online presence. You can look at primary source documents in a virtual way, using technology to "turn" the pages of books like Leonardo da Vinci's personal notebook and see his original sketches, or Mercator's First Atlas of Europe, compiled in the 1570s.


I must admit I drooled over Elizabeth Blackwell's Curious Herbal, even though I had to use the handy digital magnifying glass to read the print. There's Sultan Baybars' Qur'an, sumptuously illuminated in gold, and the Lindisfarne Gospels from the 7th century. It truly is almost as good as touching and seeing the real thing - and no white gloves!


Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons