Origins of Western culture: printed sources from continental Europe to 1700

Building on the success of Early English Books Online (EEBO), ProQuest has embarked on a European-wide project which will trace the history of printing in Europe from its origins to 1700. The Early European Books resource is set to encompass all European printed material, and material printed in European languages, from the early modern period. The contents are drawn from major repositories including the Danish Royal Library, the National Central Library in Florence, the National Library of France, the National Library of the Netherlands, and the Wellcome Library in London. Over time, other significant national libraries will be adding their collections to Early European Books to enable researchers to conduct a seamless survey of the origins and development of Western culture.

Early European Books contains significant works by Aristotle, Copernicus, Descartes, Erasmus, Kepler, Luther and Spinoza, alongside ephemeral works such as pamphlets and almanacs.

The works encompass all the major fields of human endeavour, including science, medicine, philosophy, theology, literature, history, political science, travel and exploration. Together they provide a rich source of content for study and research across the cultural landscape of early modern Europe.

Early European Books provides:

• Full-color, high-resolution (400 ppi) facsimile images scanned directly from the original printed sources.
• Each item captured in its entirety, complete with its binding, edges, endpapers, blank pages and any loose inserts, providing scholars with a wealth of information about the physical characteristics and
  provenance histories of the original artefacts.
• Detailed cataloging, including standardization of variant author, city and printer names, thanks to a partnership with the CERL Thesaurus (www.cerl.org).
• A thumbnail view which allows scanning of the contents of the entire volume.
• Images displayed in a Flash viewer, allowing the user to zoom, pan and rotate the image.
• Searching for books, or specific pages, that feature illuminated lettering, marginalia, maps, portraits or other graphic features.