Subject: tc-list Re: TC/CD

From: [email-masked] (Leonard Greenspoon)
Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 15:36:48 -0600

In response to my search for reviewers for a TC/CD, several TC'ers have
asked for further particulars on this product.  First let me provide you
with a brief review I just did for CHOICE, which as many of you know is a
journal widely used by librarians:

 East to load, easy to use, easy to read--and easy on the pocketbook--this
CD, prepared by the University of Michigan on the basis of materials from
its Special Collections Library, is an absolute delight.  Pages and leaves
from more than thirty texts and in a number of different languages are
easily accessed by even the most timid of computer users.  We learn about
the documents themselves (dating from the second to the seventeenth
centuries CE), the materials (papyrus, parchment, or paper) of which they
were written, and their place within  the history of both textual
development and technological evolution.  Users can zoom in on selected
texts, learn valuable nuggets of information from well-conceived and
-written running commentaries, and manipulate the data chronologically
through a timeline or in several other ways.  There are hard-copy
transcriptions and translations of several texts, and the Shepherd of
Hermas appears on the CD in Edgar Goodspeed's edition.   Although it might
appear that limiting its examples to the contents of the University of
Michigan Library  would diminish the utility of this interactive tool, that
is certainly not the case, inasmuch as the examples are well chosen and not
easily available elsewhere.  In short, almost all academic libraries and
learning centers will want to purchase this valuable resource, which will
aid vast numbers of biblical researchers and students--whether or not their
primary interest is the King James and the English Bible.

    As should be apparent, I think very highly of it and would note that it
is valuable whether or not you have any particular interest in English
Bibles.  In addition to the Goodspeed version on the CD, there are three
"supplemental transcriptions and translations" furnished in hard-copy:  The
Book of Enoch, Melito: Homily on the Passion, and The Epistles of Paul--the
last-mentioned included "to show the reader as accurately as possible both
the physical condition of the Michigan texts and the probable intended
meaning of those texts in cases where the papyri deviate fom the expected
New Testament readings."

The ISBN number is 0-472-00249-X, and the Publisher is listed as The
University of Michigan Press in Ann Arbor.  Again, the full name is THE
EVOLUTION OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE: FROM PAPYRI TO KING JAMES.

When others of you have gotten a copy and used it, I'd be interested in
your reactions, whether or not they confirm my enthusiasm..

leonard

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