The New Digital Imaging Room at the MOTB

Last updated on: January 30, 2024 at 1:13 am by Ben Witherington

The New Digital Imaging Room at the MOTB 2024-01-15T12:39:27-05:00 Ben Witherington

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At first, when you get to the basement you run across warning signs….

This is by the door of the digital imaging lab. But stay tuned. On the other side of the door are more signs which can be posted on the outside of the door as needed…

Inside is equipment that is uber expensive, and a special thanks to the Murdoch trust for making it possible for the Museum of the Bible to have this state of the art equipment. Inside as well is a bright young lady named Rebeccah Swerdlow who is doing the imaging. Current project, The Wicked Bible from 1631, so called because the printer goofed and had the following among the ten commandments— ‘Thou shalt commit adultery.’!!!! When he finally realized his mistake, the cow was out of the barn– he’d already printed, bounded and sold various copies of this edition, and there are still about six of them extant. The MOTB has one. But what Rebeccah is doing is digitizing everything she can, so we will have a vast data base of resources, without having to acquire, borrow or find the original. Here is the book’s cover itself…

And here is what the text itself looks like.

The machine being used has two world-class cameras attached, and the book is placed as follows for the picture taking…

It is a time consuming and slow process to digitize a whole Bible, to say the least, even with the most celestial of equipment. And here is the machine she calls Queen Esther, which allow papyri rolls to be unrolled and shot seriatim. That machine is still awaiting the arrival of it’s giant camera.

Here’s a wide shot of the machine that is already in use…..

And what you see on the two screens are images already imaged, and being filed in folders….

And lastly, here’s my new friend Rebeccah—-

She’s a hard worker and knows what she’s doing. Imagine having a digital database of all the Biblical papyri, translations etc. that the student of the Bible could need or want. Someday, if this process continues— we will. Well done MOTB

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