Classical Bookworm

Luminarium, where have you been all my blog-life?

How is it that I've been blogging about classic literature for two years and haven't run across Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature? Do roll your mouse over that link to get a taste of the gorgeousness of this site. It is not only a beautiful website but a comprehensive one, with texts, essays, biographies, and resources for scores of great English writers from the 14th to 18th centuries.

Luminarium is the creation of Anniina Jokinen, who, in 1996 (which she calls the "Internet Dark Ages"), saw a need to gather together online resources on English literature and so she went ahead and did it. Her Letter from the Editor describes that as it has grown in popularity (now at 10 million page views per month!) she has had offers that would turn the site into a paid service, but for the sake of starving students everywhere she has opted to continue as a volunteer, supporting the site with unobtrusive Google ads and book and poster affiliates. Jokinen has received many (many) awards for her site's content and design, but I think she also deserves one for generosity.

via Don't Point That Thing At Me

More Saint Isidore

Here is an image of Isidore from the Aberdeen Bestiary. He is writing "Isidoris, de natura hominis," that is, "Isidore, Concerning the Nature of Man." What follows is a chapter on human anatomy and biology, which you can read in parallel translation at the Aberdeen Bestiary site.

In my cybertravels I also discovered Medieval Latin Online, an illustrated online resource for a now defunct course at the U of Oklahoma. MLO is hosted by Laura Gibbs of the U of O, whose website (mythfolklore.net) is full of all sorts of good things. Do check it out.

MLO links to another amazing resource, Bibliotheca Augustana, which presents classic texts in every major European language plus Hebrew and Yiddish. It also has an image gallery (Museum virtuale) and audio files (Odeion virtuale). Saint Isidore would be proud.