These are exciting times for researchers! Our library service can now offer access to Early European Books: a new collection of digitised documents from the dawn of the printed book, putting extraordinary resources from the Renaissance at your fingertips. The collection comprises over 30,000 works, including 18,000 books and 4.9 million pages dating from 1450-1700 on topics including alchemy, art, botany, early medicine, philosophy, poetry, science, and theology.

Its publishers, Proquest, describe their database as “the most comprehensive digitized collection of rare books and incunabula available anywhere online. Over 30,000 works are currently included, with new titles added regularly. No other online source offers early modernists such a wide survey of the print output of Europe from 1450-1700, removing the need for lengthy research trips and saving valuable travel time and budget.”

They describe how this new interface “offers users a research experience as close as possible to actually being with the book. Researchers can see every page and feature rendered on screen in fine, crisp images. Meticulous indexing and specialist search fields ensure relevant results are returned each time.”

The project is being developed in partnership with a host of major European libraries including the National Libraries of Florence, France, and the Netherlands, the Royal Library in Denmark and the Wellcome Library, London, with more libraries expected to join the program.

See the Proquest website for more information: http://www.proquest.com/products-services/eeb.html