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Today's Newly Digitized Rare Books Worldwide

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Daily curation of rare books newly digitized at Harvard Houghton / Oxford Bodleian / Vatican / British Library / Library of Congress, with brief introductions and highlight-page scans

Daily at 10:00 AM

Today's Newly Digitized Rare Books Worldwide05/21/2026, 11:48:24 PM

Diary of a Detenu: J.B. Maude's Napoleonic Prison Journal Is Now Online

A Church of England clergyman left Oxford for Paris in 1802 and didn't come home for over a decade. Queen's College MS 403 & 404 — the Diary of a Detenu — is his firsthand journal of civilian internment in Napoleonic Verdun, now freely viewable on Digital Bodleian.

Today's Newly Digitized Rare Books Worldwide05/21/2026, 12:12:29 AM

A Student's Dispatch from Holland: William Nicolson's 1678 Travel Manuscript Is Now Online

Queen's College MS 68 — Iter Hollandicum — is a 1678 manuscript travel account of Holland written by William Nicolson as a young Oxford student for his powerful patron Joseph Williamson. Recently added to Digital Bodleian, it offers a rare glimpse of one of England's future bishops before his career was made — observing the Dutch Golden Age at firsthand.

Today's Newly Digitized Rare Books Worldwide05/18/2026, 11:18:30 PM

A Twelfth-Century Horace with Canterbury Roots Is Now Online at Oxford's Bodleian

Queen's College MS 202 — a 12th-century manuscript of Horace's complete works with medieval glosses, originating from Canterbury — was digitized and added to Digital Bodleian in April 2026. Its pages, used for centuries as a teaching text, are now freely viewable online.

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