The entire Reed Collection of Dunedin Public Libraries of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts has been carefully digitized page by page.
An incredible 4,904 pages are now available for people to view on Scattered Seeds, the organization’s online digital archive.
Reed’s librarian, rare books and special collections, Julian Smith, said a few key pages had been digitized in the past.
“But no one has ever taken on the project of digitizing the entire manuscripts, something I’ve always wanted to do.
“There are certainly plenty of people in Dunedin who like the idea of being able to see everything online.”
There were 13 manuscripts in the collection, the earliest dating to about AD 1240 and others spanning the mid-late Middle Ages and slightly into the Renaissance.
One in the collection was technically outside the medieval period, being an 18th-century Arabic manuscript, Mr Smith said.
The collection was donated in 1948 by Alfred Hamish Reed.
AH Reed was a well-known New Zealander and his company Reed Publishing was for many years the largest publisher in New Zealand, Mr Smith said.
He was remembered for long-distance walking tours, including traversing the length of New Zealand and walking from Sydney to Melbourne in Australia.
“And he did that at a very old age, when he was in his 80s.”
He was also a charity figure.
“He was known around Dunedin for helping out in churches and in the hospital.”
He was a collector of books and manuscripts, and his great love was the Bible in both written and manuscript form.
Mr Reed’s first donations to the Dunedin Library in 1948 were followed by donations between 1948 and 1960.
As his business became more successful and he had “a little more money to spare”, he was able to contribute more important items to the collection.
“He is such a fond memory around Dunedin, and many people who are still alive remember him and know of the collection he gave to the city of Dunedin.
“I think that adds value to the project, that history around Mr. Reed himself.”
The project was made possible by the New Zealand Libraries Partnership Programme, administered by the National Library, Mr Smith said.
The digitization was carried out by a specialized team from New Zealand Micrographic Services.
New Zealand Micrographic Services Southern Regional Manager Stephen Hardman said every single page was carefully arranged to minimize potential damage.
The detail of the digitization was phenomenal, he said.
This allowed researchers to extract all kinds of information from every page.
• Go to dunedin.recollect.co.nz to view the digital archive.