IBM, Poland university digitize Martin Luther, medieval texts

The project aims to create the largest digital archive of medieval manuscripts and ancient atlases in Poland.

Written by Larry Dignan, Contributing Editor on July 30, 2013

Wroclaw University Library, based in Warsaw, Poland, is partnering with IBM to digitize 800,000 European manuscripts, books and maps that date back to the Middle Ages.

The project aims to create the largest digital archive of medieval manuscripts and ancient atlases in Poland. The effort is funded through the European Union's Regional Development Fund.

Overall, 1,100 medieval manuscripts were digitized as were old prints, maps and music. More than 140 documents were conserved. The Wroclaw University Library was founded in 1811 and contains the following:

Early publications of Martin Luther, Miguel de Cervantes, and William Shakespeare.
Statuta synodalia episcoporum Wratislaviensium,” which has everyday prayers printed for the first time in Polish by Kasper Elyan in 1475.
"Legenda major de Beata Hedwigi," published by Konrad Baumgarten in 1504.
Once digitized, the texts will be available to anyone on the Internet. To date, the documents were available to few students and scientists.

As for the technology, the digitization effort was implemented by IBM partner ProSystem SA, which build a platform based on IBM System x 3550 M3 servers, IBM Storwize V7000 Unified Disk Systems and IBM System Storage SAN24B-4 Express storage systems.