Wednesday, August 1, 2007

The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg

I had been aware for a couple years that The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg had been published online. This is an invaluable resource displaying incredible familiarity with rabbinic traditions. Unfortunately, this public domain online edition does not include the footnotes and indices of vols 5-7 which are really needed to make full and proper use of the text. There is a search function on the site that helps but not much.
I just discovered, however, that Volume 5 with the footnotes to vols 1-2 has the "Search Inside" feature on Amazon. Similarly, check out Volume 6 (notes to vols 3-4) and Volume 7 (indices).
Amazon appears to be tightening up how many pages you can check out, and it takes a bit of work to find the footnote you want, but in a pinch, this is immensely helpful. Using the search feature with the indices of volume 7 is particularly useful.

2 comments:

  1. http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/metabook?id=lotj

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  2. That's interesting... Anon has provided a link to another online text of Ginzberg's LotJ at UPenn / Project Gutenberg. For volumes 1-4, I think you will find the link I provide in my original post at philologos.org to be easier to navigate and read. BUT, the UPenn link will connect you to vols 5 and 6 at Internet Archive. If you go there, you will find the 2 volumes, BUT... they are in a protected DAISY format. DAISY is a format especially designed for persons with disabilities, and the software allows for books to be read out loud or font size easily increased. After some searching, I finally found the open source DAISY reader Amis here: http://www.daisy.org/amis/download. BUT, after downloading LotJ vol 5 and trying to open it in Amis, I found that it is a protected file. To get the key, you need to be a member of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (http://www.loc.gov/nls/) limited to USA citizens with a certified disability.

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