See also: About the Online Galleries

Over 130 books are digitized entirely (or nearly so) on the Online Galleries website of the History of Science Collections of the University of Oklahoma Libraries. The Galleries provide over 60,000 high-resolution color images suitable for close scrutiny. The importance of the galleries lies not in how many complete books are digitized. Rather, browse these galleries when you need engravings, portraits, maps and illustrations for scholarly examination, or iconic images of pedagogical value for your teaching and presentations.

Nevertheless, we will digitize entire books when it serves one of the following purposes:

1. A significant work is requested by University of Oklahoma scholars and teachers to support their research and instruction, or by collaborating digital projects, particularly if the work is not available elsewhere on the web. Examples include the first English translation of William Harvey (1653); the Salusbury English translation of Galileo (1661); the Clarke/Leibniz correspondence (1717) and Cesi’s Apiarium (1625; with an English translation by Clara Sue Kidwell).
2. Distinctive characteristics of the OU copy of a work warrant its digitization regardless of duplication. Examples include the marginalia from various hands found in Aristotle’s biological works (1476); Galileo’s presentation copy of the Sidereus nuncius (1610) or the extensively annotated copy of Copernicus, De revolutionibus (1543) from the Offusius circle of mid-16th-century Paris astronomers.
3. The work contains a large number of detailed plates that make existing low-quality versions insufficient. This is the most common rationale. Examples include Regiomontanus, Kalendarium (1476); Vesalius, De fabrica (1543); Agricola, De re metallica (1556); Aldrovandi’s Monstrorum historia (1570); Gerard’s Herball (1597); Hooke’s Micrographia (1665); the celestial atlases of Bayer (1661) and Bode (1801); William Smith’s geological map of England and Wales (1815); and Darwin’s Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle, vol. 1, vol. 2, and vol. 3 (1838-43).

The list of digitized books below is arranged alphabetically by author last-names. Titles are linked to the image galleries. Author names are linked to Wikipedia (why we do this). Manuscripts and incunabula (works printed up to 1500) are in bold.

Darwin: More than 60 works by Charles Darwin have been digitized but are not listed below. See the Darwin galleries for complete digitized versions of all Darwin first editions (listed by title here), and about 40 hard-to-find other editions, which we have provided to the Darwin Online project of Cambridge University. Darwin editions digitized for Cambridge are most conveniently accessed from the OU list at Darwin Online).

1. Agricola, De re metallica (Basel, 1556)
2. Aldrovandi, Monstrorum historia (Bononiae, 1570)
3. Apian, Cosmographia (Antwerp, 1545)
4. Aristarchos, De magnitudinibus, et distantiis soli, et lunae (Pisavri, 1572)
5. Aristotle, De animalibus (Venice, 1476)
6. Aspin, Urania’s Mirror, or a View of the Heavens (London, 1825)
7. Bernardino Baldi (1533-1617), Novae gnomonices, libri quinque (1592). Latin. View catalog record. View entire ms online. More info.
8. Bernardino Baldi (1533-1617), Cronica de Matematici (ca. 1596). Latin. View images. Uncataloged. View entire ms online. More info.
9. Baroillet, Rapport du Comité des Fortifications, sur une méthode d’écrire en chiffres et sur l’instrument approprié à cet objet, proposés par le citen Baroillet, [France, c. 1790]. Manuscript. (More info.)
10. Bartisch, Ophthalmodouleia (Dresden, 1583). More info.
11. Bayer, Explicatio characterum aeneis (Ulm, 1697)
12. Bayer, Uranometria (Ulm, 1661)
13. Bode, Uranographia sive astrorum descriptio (Verolini, 1801)
14. Burnet, The Theory of the Earth (London, 1684)
15. Cassini, Giovanni Domenico (Jean-Dominique), Martis Circa Axem Proprium Revolubilis Observationes Bononiae (1666). More info.
16. Cesi, Apiarium (Rome, 1625). (More info.)
    • English translation by Clara Sue Kidwell (pdf).
17. Chatelet, Dissertation sur la nature et la propagation du feu (Paris, 1744)
18. Clarke, A Collection of papers, which passed between the late learned Mr. Leibnitz and Dr. Clarke (London, 1717), letters 1-3.
19. Clavius, In Sphaeram Ioannis de Sacro Bosco commentarivs (Romae, 1570)
20. Copernicus, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (Norimbergae, 1543). Extensive annotations from the mid-16th century circle of Paris astronomers led by Offusius. Contains censures of 1616.
21. Charles Darwin: see note above.
22. Finley, John, Tornadoes (New York, 1887)
23. Fontenelle, A Week’s Conversation on the Plurality of Worlds (London, 1728)
24. Fuchs, De historia stirpium (Basel, 1542). Hand-colored.
25. Galileo, Sidereus nuncius (Venice, 1610)
    • English translation by Peter Barker (pdf)
26. Galileo, Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems (Salusbury translation, 1661)
27. Galileo, Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina (Salusbury translation, 1661)
28. Gerard, The Herball: or Generall Historie of Plantes (London, 1597). Hand-colored.
29. Gesner, De rerum fossilium (Tigvri, 1565)
30. Harvey, The Anatomical exercises of Dr. William Harvey (London, 1653)
31. Hokusai, Katsushika Iitsu iboku Hoksai manga (19th century, woodblock print book, Japanese).
32. Hooke, Micrographia (London, 1665)
33. Huygens, Systema Saturnium (Hag-Comitis, 1659)
34. Isidore, Saint, Opusculum de temporibus (Rome, 1473)
35. Jabir Ibn Hayyam (Geber), In hoc volumine de alchemia (Nuremberg, 1541)
36. Jenner, An Inquiry Into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae (London, 1798)
37. Johnson, Samuel, Dictionary of the English Language, vol. 1 (London, 1755) and vol. 2 (London, 1758); Wikipedia book article.
38. Kepler, Mysterium cosmographicum (Tubingen, 1596)
39. Kepler, Strena, seu, de nive sexangula (Frankfurt on Main, 1611)
40. Kepler, on the Bible and Copernicanism (Salusbury translation, 1661)
41. Kircher, Athanasius. Mundus subterreneus (Amsterdam, 1665).
42. Ernst Krause, Erasmus Darwin. Translated from the German by W.S. Dallas. With a Preliminary Notice by Charles Darwin. London, John Murray, 1879.
43. Merian, Erucarum ortus (Amsterdam, 1717)
44. Mondino Dei Luzzi, Anothomia (Venice, 1507)
45. Jens Rud Nielsen, Memories of Niels Bohr (undated manuscript; more information).
46. (Ise?) Nobutoyo, Yahon Hiden. Japanese book about the arrow; 1846 manuscript copy by Hajime Terai from 1556 original written by Nobutoyo, illustrations copied by Odani. (1556-1846a)
47. (Ise?) Nobutoyo, Koto no sho. Japanese book about “leggings” (cowboy chaps); 1846 manuscript copy by Hajime Terai from 1556 original written by Nobutoyo, illustrations copied by Odani. (1556-1846b)
48. Pacioli, Divina proportione (Venice, 1509)
49. Peale, Rembrandt, An Historical Disquisition on the Mammoth, or Great American Incognitum, an Extinct, Immense, Carnivorous Animal, whose Fossil Remains have been found in North America (London, 1803).
50. Pritto, Diego, Il Corriere Astronomo (Bologna, 1650)
51. Regiomantanus, Kalendarium (Venice, 1476)
52. Erasmus Reinhold, Demonstratio halonis. Manuscript, ca. 1550.
53. Sacrobosco, Sphaera Ioannis de Sacrobosco emendata (Antwerp, 1582)
54. Sacrobosco, Opus Sphaericum (Venice, 1478)
55. Saulnier, Notice sur le voyage de M. Lelorrain, en Egypte (Paris, 1822), with zodiac plate by Vivant Denon. (More info.)
56. Smith, William, A Memoir to the Map and Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales (London, 1815)
57. Smith, William, Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales (London, 1815). See also the composite double-page maps.
58. Toaldo, Giuseppe, Saggio meteorologico (Padua, 1770)
59. Tyson, Edward, The Anatomy of a Pygmy (London, 1751)
60. Vesalius, De humani corporis fabrica (Basel, 1543)
61. Vitruvius Pollio, Architecture, vol. 1 (London, 1791
62. Wilkins, John, A Discovery of a New World, or, A Discourse Tending to prove, that ’tis Probable there may be another habitable World in the Moon (London, 1684).
63. Wright, Thomas, The Original Theory or New Hypothesis of the Universe (London, 1750)
64. New England Primer (Boston, 1745), wikipedia

Last revised: March 31, 2011.