Early modern studies: Ebooks
BLOG HOME It’s been a while since I posted here. I’ve been doing a lot of travelling, there are other projects I’m working on, and suddenly I find it’s been months since I last posted. It’s not that I haven’t been working on the early modern period. Last summer, I was back in the University […]
Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford
Wentworth’s path from Lord Deputy of Ireland to the executioner’s axe is well enough known in its broad outlines, but with so many twists and nuances that it is hard to evaluate. The decisive change in his fortunes came when the king, Charles I, recalled him from Ireland and charged him with putting down the […]
Archbiship Laud: A History of the Troubles and Tryal
The scanning continues! I had some technical problems that needed dealing with, so I’m two or three months behind with the early modern book scans, but I’m back in production now. Henry Wharton’s 1695 edition of Laud’s account of his imprisonment and trial, published as A History of the Troubles and Tryal of the most […]
Early Modern Digital Humanities
I’ve added a page to my website giving details of some of the main online databases and resources for the early modern period. Click here: Early modern digital humanities. I’m sure there are many useful resources I haven’t added, so please let me know if there’s anything you feel should be included.
The Gunpowder-Treason: with a discourse of the manner of its discovery
Go straight to the scanned book Although this work was published many years after the events it describes, and its main content is reprinted, it also contains the first printing of a number of letters relating to the plot. It is not a scarce work, and there is at least one other online copy (in […]
A True Copy of the Journal of the High Court of Justice, for the Trial of K. Charles I.
This full-page frontispiece is prefaced by the following poem: These lines speak for themselves, describing “Albion” as “Three Nations doom’d t’eternal slavery”, symbolized by the figures crushed under the wheels of the hellish chariot that represents the Interregnum and Cromwell’s Protectorate. That gives a pretty clear idea of where this book is coming from. The […]
A 15th-century manuscript book of hours
Go straight to the scanned PDFs This week’s book scan is a bit different from my usual fare. It’s a manuscript, it’s from the 15th century, it’s not primarily related to suffering and – because of the limitations of OCR (optical character reader) software – it’s not text-searchable. But if you have any interest in […]
MAURUS SCOTT, CATHOLIC MARTYR (SCANNED DOCUMENT)
It’s a common enough tale, I suppose. Young man goes to Cambridge, studies law, goes to the inner Temple to complete his training, gets converted to Catholicism and ends up being hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn. Maurus Scott was one of some 355 Catholics who were either put to death or died in prison […]
Digitizing Early Modern Suffering
I finally splashed out on a CZUR overhead scanner, which I picked up at a substantial discount from the regular market price. I strongly recommend anyyone to get one of these. Forget that dishwasher you were saving up for, or the new hairdryer you’ve been promising yourself; for real consumer satori nothing beats an overhead […]
Rejoice! for eebo tcp phase 2 is now in the public domain
Here it is! Something tangible and irrefutable, something that makes 2021 better than 2020 (not that that would be hard!), something to cheer the spirit and warm the cocckles of the heart. Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership Phase 2 is now in the public domain, bringing 60,331 early modern works in text-searchable form […]