About this project
Henry Bellingham's Book is a digital project of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at the Ohio State University. It provides access to the digitized manuscript pages of the commonplace book, as well as supplementary materials to aid the user's exploration of its contents.
This digital project was researched, designed, and created by Sarah Shippy during the Summer and Fall quarters 2008. At that time, she was a graduate student in the Department of History at Ohio State University pursuing a master's degree in early modern European history. She has additional fields in medieval European and early American history, as well as thematic interests in gender, cultural and intellectual history. The latter two have led to her interest in the history of the book. Sarah graduated with the MA in December 2008.
Acceptable use
The Rare Books and Manuscripts Library is committed to supporting scholarship and education, thus it promotes the free use of the contents of this site. If you use any part of this site in the course of preparing a class assignment or publication, please refer to the Acceptable use page for citation guidelines.
Technical notes
This site was created using Adobe Dreamweaver CS3. The design employs cascading style sheets.
Creation of digital images
The digital images of the manuscript pages were scanned in 24bit RGB color at 300ppi on an Epson Expression 1640 XL and saved as TIFF files. For this site, each image was resized and saved as a JPEG file. The thumbnail versions on the HTML pages are 370 pixels wide. The larger versions are 1200 pixels wide. If you would like to view the original TIFF file of an image, please contact the RBMS Webmaster; reference the file name (e.g., CB001) in your request.
Viewing the larger images
Many browsers automatically resize very large images so that they fit within your browser window. If you are using Internet Explorer 7, Mozilla Firefox, or Safari to view this site (on a Windows or Macintosh machine), your browser will likely not show you a large enough image of the manuscript page for you to read it. To view the image at the full 1200 pixels,
- Choose the link "View larger version of this image (approximately 900KB)" or click directly on the thumbnail version of the image.
- Once the next screen has loaded, move your cursor over the image. It should turn into a magnifying glass with a "+" in the center. (You may need to move your cursor over blank space first.)
- Click on the image with the magnifying-glass cursor.
- Use your browser's scroll bars to explore the 1200px-wide image. It also helps to resize the window.
Acknowledgments
This digital project would not have been possible without the generous support of many individuals.
At the University Libraries, Dr. Geoffrey Smith met the initial proposal for this project with much enthusiasm. Lisa Iacobellis digitized all of the manuscript pages and provided technical advice for keeping this site compliant with the University's goals and web policy. Harry Campbell provided information about the construction and repair of the manuscript book. He also provided photographs of the book after its restoration.
In the Department of History, I received both academic and technical support. Dr. David Staley directed my reading on digital history and design. He was my sounding board for ideas during all phases of this project. Dr. David Cressy, my advisor, suggested readings on "commonplacing" in the seventeenth century. His publications on literacy, print culture, and the English Civil War provided a solid foundation for my research on this manuscript. Two courses that I took at OSU further shaped my perspective on this commonplace book: Dr. John Brooke's "Civil Society and the Public Sphere" (Winter 2007) and Dr. Daniel Hobbins' "Communication and Written Culture" (Spring 2008). Chris Aldridge, webdeveloper for the Goldberg Program in the Department of History, fielded many technical questions.
Dr. Frank Coulson, Director of Palaeography, provided an experienced perspective on how many scribes had written in the commonplace book. Joe Bondra and numerous student assistants at the Digital Union helped to bring me up to speed on web development products and techniques.
The following individuals provided feedback on a beta version of this site:
Chris Aldridge, Dr. Suzie Allard, Jim Bach, Will Copeland, Gayle Glanville, Betsy Grant, David Green, Sarah Kernan, Sara Miller, Craig Nelson, Dr. Lorraine Normore, Anne Sealey, Jason Shippy, Jay Shippy, and Dr. Cindy Welch.
Their comments led to many improvements.
Disclaimer and notice of responsibility
All text on this site (excluding that on the digital images of the manuscript) is the intellectual product of Sarah Shippy. Therefore any interpretations or errors are her fault and not that of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library. Please contact her if you notice any errors or omissions.