Nowadays more and more institutions involved in the collection of texts, have begun to digitise their collections. In my search for ways that the castell of helth has been reproduced, I found several digitised versions of the book online. Examining these copies allowed me to make observations about the advantages and disadvantages of digitisation as well as how the format of the book influences my interpretation of it. 

One of the main advantages of digitising antique books like the castell of helth is its resulting accessibility. A physical copy of an antique book can be difficult to track down. Then, depending on how rare this text is, the price of the text may be beyond the potential buyer’s budget. Many antique or rare texts are in the possession of institutions such as museums or universitaries. Not everyone who has an interest in learning more about the subject of bibliography has access to such spaces. Though not everyone has access to the internet, and therefore access to a digitised text, digitisation is still able to reach a much wider pool of individuals than a physical copy of a text could reach. Another advantage along the lines of accessibility is that digitisation allows for a much easier way to compare multiple copies of a text. An individual might have only one copy of a text they are interested in. Searching online for digital copies provides them with a way to compare multiple versions of the book without the need to buy or borrow physical texts. The copy of the castell of helth that I chose to study for my pet book project was the only copy of the book from Special Collections at Colby College. This copy was published in 1541. On ebay, I was able to find a 1959 reprint of a 1541 edition of the castell of helth. One of the first things I noticed was the disparities in the spelling of the title. In Special Collections’ copy, castell is spelt with two Ls, in the ebay copy there is only one L. There is also only one L in the version digitised by the Library of Congress which was also published in 1541. On Google Books, a 1587 copy of the book spells castell with two Ls. The title pages of all these books were also all a bit different. Every book had a few sentences introducing the author, sometimes accompanied by the date of and location of publication, with this information surrounded by a border of sorts. What differed among each book is how elaborate the borders are. These discrepancies may be due to the different printing styles of various printers that the author, Thomas Elyot, entrusted his work to. Being able to easily compare all these copies of the books allows me to gather important information about the production and use of this book and to draw conclusions about the history of the book based on this information. 

One of the main disadvantages of digitisation is that not every detail can be digitised. Though technology has come a long way, there are still some aspects of a book that digitisation cannot recreate such as the texture/feel of a book. The cover of the copy of the castell of helth that I chose for the project is a well worn leather cover. When I first saw this book, I was able to run my fingers over the cover and experience the feel of centuries worth of use through dips and tears along the binding. This experience was the principal reason why I decided to work with the castell of health instead of another text that I had also found interesting. When working with a physical copy of the castell of health I found myself vastly interested in the history of the book’s use and I found that a lot of this information could be deduced from the book’s binding. When working with a digital format of the castell of helth, I found myself concentrating more on what I could find within the pages of the book rather than the binding. I was still interested in the history of the book, but instead of focusing on physical deterioration, I spent more time examining content such as font size and formatting. 

As technology continues to advance, new ways will be developed to preserve and restore texts. We are heading into a future where digitisation will become the norm. I think that digitising books is important for accessibility and also for protecting them in the case of damage to the physical book. In this way, digitisation