Text and illustration: the digitisation of a medieval manuscript

This paper considers the choice of the medieval Aberdeen Bestiary as the first project in Aberdeen University Library's digitisation programme, and discusses some of the unusual features of the manuscript itself. Attention is given to the content and depth of the accompanying commentaries, and particular notice is paid to the nature and extent of the textual apparatus (translation and transcription). The factors influencing the choice of (a) PhotoCD as the image capture method, and (b) JPEG as the image format for transmission of the page images across the World Wide Web are examined. The importance of the Web design to the effectiveness of the overall resource is emphasised.