Keeper of the heart's relics

February 8, 2008 12:21 PM

Lyfrau o'r Gorffennol or Books from the Past is a growing online collection of books of Welsh cultural interest which have long been out of print. Some are in Welsh, some in English, all are available to download in a variety of formats or to read online. Found as the collection includes a book on the Adventures and Vagaries of Twm Siôn Cati, the famed bard, genealogist and bandit trickster supreme from Tregaron. It's one of a host of well-presented digital archives built using the multilingual open source Greenstone software suite.
posted by Abiezer (13 comments total)

Welsh rules!
posted by grubi at 12:26 PM on February 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

Admiral Haddock ydw i--rydw i’n dysgu Cymraeg!!

That was as far as I got, other than to say coffi gwyn and coffi du.

Seeing this makes me want to try to learn again.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 12:35 PM on February 8, 2008

abiezer, you are made of awesome. THANKS for this!!!
posted by CitizenD at 12:52 PM on February 8, 2008

Anna : or, memoirs of a Welch heiress looks like a gem for us poor Cymraeg-deficients too: "the story of an orphaned girl who is originally cared for by a dishonest vicar. The girl's background is not known at the outset but she is found in possession of a treasure chest." Naughty vicars and girls in possession of interesting chests. Could be the plot of a Carry On saucy laugh spectacular!
posted by Abiezer at 12:52 PM on February 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

Cwl!
posted by ZenMasterThis at 1:35 PM on February 8, 2008 [2 favorites]

I like it!
posted by languagehat at 2:07 PM on February 8, 2008

There's a glittering pile of gems in the list of archives created using the Greenstone software, most of which would make excellent FPPs in themselves; Kyrgyz national epics, testimonies of British Columbian First Nation chiefs to land commissions, Argentinian human rights records and a collection of old postcards from Alabama were some I quickly skimmed. I really like the way the software allows full-text searches too.
posted by Abiezer at 2:26 PM on February 8, 2008

Bendigedig!
posted by popcassady at 2:30 PM on February 8, 2008

A second Welsh win in the Six Nations and now this? My cup runneth over. Diolch Abiezer!
posted by ceri richard at 8:25 AM on February 9, 2008

Oh dear, the bottom of every page in Anna : or, memoirs of a Welch heiress is missing :-( (.pdf, .rtf and .txt versions). Anyone know of a complete version? I'm hooked!
posted by ceri richard at 12:23 PM on February 9, 2008

WTF? Why does Google Books have no preview of a book published in 1786?? It should be full view, for Pete's sake!
posted by languagehat at 12:39 PM on February 9, 2008

Thank you languagehat, I thought it was just me. I guess it's because the only digital form that exists is the one at Lyfrau o'r Gorffennol or Books from the Past?
posted by ceri richard at 4:42 PM on February 9, 2008

Argh, what a tantalising disappointment, ceri! I fear your only chance will be to mail the site admin and tell them there's a problem with their scan. It does seem that if you use the "browse page images" feature it's all there, but that's probably the least convenient way to read :(.
posted by Abiezer at 9:10 PM on February 9, 2008