Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Check this out. The Spanish National Library has digitalized more than ten thousand items from its collection. Here's the link. They have, among other things, manuscripts, books, engravings, drawings, maps, photos, and posters, including drawings by Velazquez and Goya, some of Leonardo's codexes, the first edition of El Quijote, engravings by Durer and Rembrandt, the 16th century atlas commissioned by Felipe II, and Civil War propaganda posters. Unfortunately, it's only in Spanish, so English-speakers may have some difficulty. They say they're going to digitalize more than 200,000 works over the next five years. See? It's possible to spend our tax money usefully. I bet this whole thing costs about one-tenth all the money wasted subsidizing crappy movies that nobody wants to watch.

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