Leonardo's Notebook Digitized in All Its Befuddling Glory

Absolutely anyone with a web browser can instantly access what was once available only to a select few scholars, and even then only under the least convenient of circumstances.

A mere handful of years ago, the only way the average person would have even seen one of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks would be in a museum display, assuming they knew of the display, had the wherewithal to visit, and the resources to get there if it wasn't in their own city.

Now, the British Museum has made literally hundreds of priceless manuscripts, from da Vinci to Beowulf, available to even the most casual reader who happens to click on a link, thanks to their careful preservation, curation, and digitization, all at no cost to the viewer.

What's the response? Complaining. "Yes, fine, but I wanted to _download_ it, not just see it!"

Yup, this is the Internet, alright.

Looks like the format is:

  http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Proxy.ashx?view=arundel_ms_263_<page_number>_files/<resolution_level>/<column>_<row>.jpg

At resolution 14, columns range from 0 to 33 and rows range from 0 to 24.

Edit: I hacked together a python script to download all images at resolution 14 https://gist.github.com/L1fescape/4761013

Now to figure out how to combine them all...

http://boingboing.net/2009/07/20/uk-national-portrait.html

The clueless idiot that got their stamp pad out that day is probably long retired or dead.

That big black stamp on page 2 doesn't look original either though, to be fair."ex dono" = as gift.