I had thought that Rome Reborn would be pretty darned cool. It’s a three-dimensional model of Rome, as of June 21, 320 (c.e.), including some seven thousand buildings, some of which have detailed exteriors and interiors. And, you know, it is cool, in the long run. It’ll be an excellent tool for certain kinds of history work, and an even better one for writing bad mysteries set in ancient Rome. Plauticus Holiminus was walking in the shadow of the Temple of Vespasian when he heard a voice from the Caesarian Rostra sort of thing.
It turns out that what is far, far cooler is the Codices Electronici Sangallenses. Check out the eyes of the evangelists from The Irish gospel-book of St. Gallen (Cod. Sang. 51), or the initials from Evangelium longum (Cod. Sang. 53), or the dramatic horserace of Sobriety and Luxury from Prudentius Carmina (Cod. Sang. 135). Or the wonderfully abbreviated river Jordan, and the two angels holding the Messiah’s warm-up jacket in the baptism from the Breviarium Romanum dominicale et feriale (Cod. Sang. 402). I’ll stop now, but seriously, this stuff is amazing. And if you find something you like, zoom all the way in, because the details are even more amazing. And you don’t have to go to Switzerland.
Really, in a lot of ways, it’s a wonderful time to be alive, isn’t it? I mean, yes, end of the world and all, but still.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.