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National Library of Medicine's "Turning the Pages" ProjectThe new, publicly-available online version of Turning the Pages <www.nlm.nih.gov/turningthepages>, enables viewers to flip through three 16th-century books from the National Library of Medicine’s (NLM)collection with a click of the computer mouse. Rare books such as these are usually only accessible by visiting a library, but now can be viewed while sitting at your desk. The high-tech and historical worlds intersect in the Turning the Pagestechnology, which was pioneered by the British Library in 1998 and came to NLM in 2001. In addition to viewing the images, viewers can use the zoom feature to magnify any portion of the page for more detail. An audioclip provides information about each page, and the narrative (by NLM historians) can also be viewed as text. 
Konrad Gesner’s (1516-1565) Historiae Animalium (Studies on Animals), a delightful compendium of colorful zoological hand-colored woodcuts. Although it includes descriptions of such creatures as satyrs and unicorns, this masterpiece was the first attempt to describe many of the world’s animals accurately. Ambroise Pare´ (1510-1590), the author of the second book, Oeuvres (Collected Works), was a French surgeon from humble beginnings who revolutionized how surgeons treat wounds. His book features surgical instruments and prosthetic devices from the 16th century, pictured above. Andreas Vesalius’s (1514-1564), De Humani Corporis Fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body) features beautifully detailed engravings by artists from the workshop of Titian. Vesalius created the modern science of anatomy and produced one of the most influential works in the history of medicine. Original print versions of Oeuvres and De Humani Corporis Fabrica are part of the History of Medicinecollection at Falk Library. You can view these works in the Falk Library Rare Books Room by appointment. The technical requirements needed to view the Turning the Pages project are: 1. CPU: At least 800 MHz CPU; 1.2+ GHz recommended Information in this article is from <www.nlm.nih.gov/news/turnpages_online05.html>. |
