You may have heard of The Great Omar, a fully illuminated copy of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.
The first copy sank on the Titanic. The second copy was preserved in a bank vault that was bombed during the blitz. A third copy, produced decades after the first, is preserved in the British Library.
Maybe you've seen scans of the full-page illustrations from the double-folio-sized book.
I'd seen them, and always wanted to know what the rest of the pages, all hand-illuminated, looked like.
But of course, I never found them online--just the color plates.
Then I found out that, in 1911, there were also 550 copies of the double-folio size printed with far less expensive binding. So I was in luck! It was possible that someone had scanned one of those copies!
But I could not find a copy that anyone had ever scanned.
So I tracked one down, and I bought it.
So the reason I'm posting here is because I think it's super amazing. But also because I want to know: what's the best scanner for picking up all the details, and what's the best place to store it?
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Just wanted to tell you that you are awesome. Do you keep the book after scanning? You could resell it and buy an other book, making digital publishing of old books your legacy.
Thanks. I intend to keep it, though. I don't know of any other books that are old and worth scanning in that are within my price range. This one I intend to keep and reread.
The only other book I want as bad is a copy of the 3rd book of the third edition of Paradise Lost. It's the first book ever printed with illustrations, in English. It's eleven-thousand dollars, though. So I have to wait until next year to buy it, if it's still available.
OP is a gentleman and a scholar. Is there any way to get more light on the pictures though? The difference in color between and is pretty significant. Regardless this is amazing stuff.
These are just pictures from my phone. I need to buy a really good scanner that will pick up all the details. Have a recommendation for a good scanner for that purpose, by chance? Here's as much light as I've really got in my apartment I tend to forget to replace lightbulbs in.
Is what you can find of the 12 color plates. Are pictures of my copy, taken this afternoon with my phone.
God damn, Muslim know how to make aesthetic covers
Just for some background, Edward Fitzgerald, who spent decades translating it, is a minor English Poet. The book was produced by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, who were English book binders. Omar Khayyam was Muslim, yes, but the poems are pretty irreligious. Whether that's because of the translation making it generic to deists and Christians in general, or because of Khayyam's ambivalence towards religion is up for debate. But it's pretty far from a sermon, and concludes that religion is irrelevant.
Where can one buy one?
Abe Books has a few more copies available. This one, which has spots and busted binding, was $600. The high-end is around $3k. Decent binding is about $1.2. This was the best copy I could find for under $1k.
Jesus, that's expensive as fuck, and you want to just give it away? I applaud you man
You don't know how much I wanted this book. I doubt I'm the only one, and I lose nothing by sharing pictures. But if I upload the whole thing as high-quality scans, we're talking a gig or so.
So is there anywhere that accepts high-quality scan submissions? Any good forums anyone knows?
I also need a scanner, and I'm hoping I can find one that won't require me to break the spine even worse.
I might be retarded for suggesting this but maybe Staples can do it. I used them for high quality scans of college projects but this is a work of art, so idk if it will survive a 16 year old being paid minimum wage
As for upload sites we have Library Genisis but I think it would be better and more profitable to you to sell a PDF or EPub
Library Genisis looks good, thank you. I'll look into print shops, maybe. The whole point is sharing, so I'd never try to sell it.
>who founded the
FOUNDED THE WHAT. REEEEEEEE
I wish I could answer your question. That said why is this story/book so special and important to you?
Do you just really like wine?
Oh, sorry. Here's the rest in this and the next 2.
I'm not sure. I have a dozen or so copies of it, and obsess over the differences between the third and the fourth edition of the translation. By then they were all editing choices--no distinct differences where one was better or worse, except how well you liked the choice he made.
I took a copy with me when we went backpacking the Sierra Nevada trail. i'd read a few stanzas every morning to my friends. I have prints hanging on my walls of the plates from this very book I now own.
It's thoughtful. And it's kind without being sentimental. It's a book that opens up the things we all think about when we're a little drunk and wondering who we are. It's got that melancholy without actually being sad, and it looks upwards.
I just really like this book.
Last page of the intro for
thanks for sharing
maybe your local library has a book scanner they would let you use
pretty cool find though. I never heard of it
very nice, OP
Thanks.
Found my two, favorite stanzas. Took me a sec. I haven't read this copy through, yet. I guess I was too excited to sit and read.
These are more lyrical in the whole, but I think they're still pretty good, all by themselves.
I'm really loving this book's aesthetic. It's like the best of orientalist and the best of anglo-saxon design blended with the best of Edwardian design.
I don't know how much you know about it. But your description is exactly what happened. It was an accident. 110 years ago? Every half-educated, white man knew this book.
The serendipity of it being published is a crazy story of accidents that snowballed into world-wide fame. This printing was plagued with exactly the right amount of historic tragedy. First copy is destroyed by the sinking of the Titanic, and copy number 2 by the Nazis? It's crazy how much this book's history is the story of the twentieth century.
Sometimes things were popular because they were really good.