A new app about a King's book; A book about a King, his book

According to its website, this app is "the first in a series of mobile apps from the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford." It features a selection of items from the current exhibition 'Manifold Greatness: Oxford and the Making of the King James Bible' (from 22 April to 4 September). (Field trip, anyone? Though if you can't make it to England by next month, you'll be able to see it U.S. through 2013.)

This app is available for both iPad and iPhone at $1.99 and $.99 respectively. It features audio commentary, images of the base text, and the original rules of translation.

And it might go well with this item that I just glimpsed on the "new books" shelf over here at the Teszler:

Majestie : the king behind the King James Bible, by David Teems. 2010.

From the publisher:

Written with a touch of the irreverent, Majestie is a shared biography: that of the first Stuart King of England (James I) and the Bible that goes by his name. It is part tabloid, part history lesson, part speculation; but it’s all James.

Google to Make British Library Archive Available Online - Tech Europe - WSJ

The long tail gets longer:

The British Library today announced its first partnership with Google, under which Google will digitize 250,000 items from the library’s vast collection of work produced between 1700-1870.

Nevertheless, [a representative of the Library] expressed slight frustration that the project will not go beyond 1870: “What we really want is the 20th century, but we Europeans are often locked out of our own culture by copyright laws. So, for instance, the First World War poets, which are pre-1923 and therefore out of copyright in the USA, are still in copyright in Europe. There is an absurdity there.”

Nor, he noted, was the issue of copyright restricted to Europe: “Early adopters of digitization were American college libraries that got themselves in a bit of trouble with copyright. The 1870 date we’ve chosen is very conservative and none of the European libraries has released anything that is still in copyright. The idea of the British Library and things that are still in copyright is way too rich for our blood.” [Excerpted, emphasis added]

Read the full article @ Tech Europe - Wall Street Journal: Google to Make British Library Archive Available Online

"A terrible beauty is born"

Easter, 1916


I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words,
And thought before I had done
Of a mocking tale or a gibe
To please a companion
Around the fire at the club,
Being certain that they and I
But lived where motley is worn:
All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

That woman's days were spent
In ignorant good-will,
Her nights in argument
Until her voice grew shrill.
What voice more sweet than hers
When, young and beautiful,
She rode to harriers?
This man had kept a school
And rode our winged horse;
This other his helper and friend
Was coming into his force;
He might have won fame in the end,
So sensitive his nature seemed,
So daring and sweet his thought.
This other man I had dreamed
A drunken, vainglorious lout.
He had done most bitter wrong
To some who are near my heart,
Yet I number him in the song;
He, too, has resigned his part
In the casual comedy;
He, too, has been changed in his turn,
Transformed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

Hearts with one purpose alone
Through summer and winter seem
Enchanted to a stone
To trouble the living stream.
The horse that comes from the road.
The rider, the birds that range
From cloud to tumbling cloud,
Minute by minute they change;
A shadow of cloud on the stream
Changes minute by minute;
A horse-hoof slides on the brim,
And a horse plashes within it;
The long-legged moor-hens dive,
And hens to moor-cocks call;
Minute by minute they live:
The stone's in the midst of all.

Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?
That is Heaven's part, our part
To murmur name upon name,
As a mother names her child
When sleep at last has come
On limbs that had run wild.
What is it but nightfall?
No, no, not night but death;
Was it needless death after all?
For England may keep faith
For all that is done and said.
We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead;
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died?
I write it out in a verse -
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.


-W.B. Yeats, 1916

In observance of St. Patrick's Day, here are some links to resources provided by the National Library of Ireland.

The 1916 Rising: Personalities and Perspectives

Yeats: The Life and Works of William Butler Yeats




Above: James Joyce reading from Finnegan's Wake.

And of course Joyce's Ulysses in 18 animated .gifs: Ulysses for Dummies. (It's a lot funnier if you've read the book - I'd recommend taking the time someday.)

"Timelines: Sources from History," a resource from the British Library

"Timelines: Sources from History" is a fantastic free web resource for studying the history of Great Britain. It features Web 2.0 functionality and feel with an interactive timeline and stunning digital images of important documents from British history. Via Dr. Grinnell on Facebook.

It's been added to the library's English Lit and History research guides.