Restorers of Alchemical Manuscripts Digital Library
Newsletter

Issue 1.

Equinox, March 21, 2006.

Index:
Courteous Reader | Library Projects Update | News updates

Courteous Reader,

This being the first Newsletter for the digital library, it covers the time period from creation to date.
The primary purpose of this newsletter is to keep you abreast of the changes within the digital library and is intended to be a quarterly format. Next issue: Solstice, 21 June, 2006.

www.ramsdigital.com was launched on 19th January, 2006. The new URL is the final location and a promising outcome for the construction stage of this digital project.

Highlights to date include: News updates are now available as a RSS feed; the completion of the Table of Contents project for the entire library and the creation of this newsletter service.

All in the Work,
Andrew Kettle.

Library Projects Update

Library Project overview:
The digitalization process of each title is: from scanned pages a .jpg file is created, this file is fed to a text recognition program which creates a .doc file and in turn a .pdf. The .doc file is checked against the original .jpg files and corrections are made resulting in the deletion of the .jpg.
In the process of digitalization the total page numbers from titles are no longer useful for recognition.
The document files are being formatted to 2 cm margins on A4 pages.

Recent Library Additions:
4 March, 2006.
"Treatise on Metallic and Mineral Medicines" by Quercetanus (Joseph Du Chesne). R.A.M.S. 1986. 84 pages added to CDrom 2.
24 October, 2005.
"The Transmutation of Base Metals Into Gold and Silver" David Beuther added to CDrom 1.
08 October, 2005.
"Arcana Divina" ( The Divine Secret ) Anonymous; "Discourse on the Fountain of Philosophical Salt" by Solinus Salztal; "Revelation of the True Chemical Wisdom" by Friederich Gualdus; "Philosophia Maturata Of the Stone of the Philosophers" by St. Dunstan; and "Verbum Dismissum" by Count Bernard Trevisan added to CDrom 1.

Current Project:
Proof-Reading the Works of Glauber. Commenced January, 2006.
Project Brief:
To proof-read the Glauber text, reduce the number of CDroms required and produce improved .doc and .pdf files.
Project results to date:
"A Treatise on the Animal Stone" completed 16/3/06
"The Hellish Goddess Proserpina" completed 8/3/06
"Three Principles of Metals" completed 28/2/06
"Libellus Ignium", or "Book of Fires" completed 11/2/06
"The Three Most Noble Stones Generated by Three Secret Fires" completed 16/01/06
"Elias Artista" completed 9/01/06
"The Secret Fire of the Philosophers" completed.06/01/06.

News Updates

17 March. RSS Feed Created.
A RSS Feed to keep you up-to-date with changes on the site from your desktop. The New rss button on the menu has the direct link. Otherwise use http://www.ramsdigital.com/rss/RAMSrss.xml in your RSS Reader.
 
11 March, 2006. Subscription corrected.
The Newsletter Subscription form engine has been corrected not to bounce new members. Apologies for any inconvenience the previous code has caused. All members have been added to the newsletter service.
 
19th February, 2006. Timeline Created.
A sub-project to list all the R.A.M.S. publications in a timeline based on the release date has been created. The project is not complete as some titles where not published with a date or the digital copy did not include it, however the majority of the titles have a date and creating this timeline gives an insight into the history of the original R.A.M.S.
 
9th February, 2006. Newsletter Subscriptions have commenced.
A free newsletter from R.A.M.S. Digital will commence on the Autumn Equinox 2006. It is intended to maintain contain with clients and report news from the library. A subscription form has been created on the front page of the website for ease of use.
 
2nd February, 2006. Catalogue restructed.
Each title has a separate page being created that includes an image of the cover and table of contents. This replaces the previous catalogue that was one long text page. However, the downloadable catalogue file remains as a single file to assist searching.
 
22nd January, 2006.
Hans Nintzel page updated.
Improved biography and bibliograph details for Hans Nintzel HTML page, including links to the articles "Alchemy is Alive and Well" , 1988 and "Meditation and Alchemy," 1978.
 
17th January, 2006.
Ramsdigital.com launched!
It is with great pleasure that weinform you that http://www.ramsdigital.com has been registered and is now active!
Thanks to Scott Sinclair for the web brokering service.