Att. Publishers - Possible Puritan Gem that has fallen through the cracks.

[davejonescue]

Hello, today I was continuing my linking of Calamys "Non-Conformist Memorial," and came across a Puritan named Samuel Hardy. He authored two books, one entitled "A Guide to Heaven from the Word," and "A Second Guide to Heaven." Calamy speaking on this/these books writes "Calamy speaks of it as 'suppos'd to be his,' and says it originally bore the title 'News from the Dead,' meaning 'the civilly dead nonconformists;' he questions' whether any one book has been oftner printed or done more good than that little homely book." In his "Memorial" he writes "A Guide to Heaven" (a book which has gone thro' many editions and been remarkably useful.)"

A guide to heaven from the Word, or, Good counsell how to close savingly with Christ with some short but serious questions to ask our hearts every morning and evening, whether we walk closely with him : and especially, rules for the strict and due ob

A second guide to heaven shewing that it is every mans indispensable duty and interest to secure heaven for himself ... : likewise representing to consideration the common and notorious neglects and mistakes about this business of so great concernmen

I just havent seen it published by any of the usual Puritan Publishers, and maybe it has been unintentionally overlooked.
Below is an excerpt from "Practice of Piety" by Hambrick-Stowe

 

[Regi Addictissimus]

Thanks for sharing. I will investigate this further next week.

 

[davejonescue]

Thanks for sharing. I will investigate this further next week.

Excellent. And just in case you all at RHB havent done something similar, below is a link to the Public Zotero Library I have been linking all the Puritan & Non-Conformists for my project. I dont know fully how Zotero works, but I think you can export a public library and put it in your own Zotero. But maybe it can be of some use none the less. God Bless.

Zotero | Groups > EEBO-TCP/Public Domain Complete Puritan Works

Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share research.

www.zotero.org

 

[Don Kistler]

I have 4 titles by Samuel Hardy in PDF format, as yet unretyped. They are:

1. A Brief Rule of Life, being a second part of the Guide to Heaven. 1684, 43 pp.
2. A Guide to Heaven from the Word, 1664. 57 pp.
3. A Guide to Scattered Flocks, 1684. 129 pp.
4. A Second Guide to Heaven, 1687. 158 pp.

May be a worthwhile project down the road.

Don Kistler

 

[davejonescue]

Thanks for sharing. I will investigate this further next week.

I may have found another one that looks good (or at least a good topic,) that is "A Cap of Grey Hairs for a Green Head - A Fathers Counsel to His Son" Caleb Trenchfield

A cap of grey hairs for a green head, or, The fathers counsel to his son, an apprentice in London to which is added a discourse on the worth of a good name / by Caleb Trenchfield.

 

[greenbaggins]

The big one that still needs publishing is Anthony Burgess's work on justification. In my opinion nothing else even comes close to mattering compared to that.

 

[JH]

What we really need is the Mather brothers on singing of Psalms: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/...XMvnj71IayFins3tO3mov-_kO6FtZna4RzbaKwZPNV3U8

 

[davejonescue]

The big one that still needs publishing is Anthony Burgess's work on justification. In my opinion nothing else even comes close to mattering compared to that.

If you like, I already have it published in PDF & EPUB at The Puritan Inn. Volume 24. Dont know if digital is your thing though?

Puritan Works vol. 1-25

The Complete EEBO-TCP Unformatted Puritan and Non-Conformist Collection V2.0 Vols. 1-25 Compiled & Updated by David Jonescue, Logan West, & Alex Sarrouf 2022-23 Vols.1-25 PDF's Vols.1-25 EPUB's

www.puritaninn.com

 

[greenbaggins]

If you like, I already have it published in PDF & EPUB at The Puritan Inn. Volume 24. Dont know if digital is your thing though?

Puritan Works vol. 1-25

The Complete EEBO-TCP Unformatted Puritan and Non-Conformist Collection V2.0 Vols. 1-25 Compiled & Updated by David Jonescue, Logan West, & Alex Sarrouf 2022-23 Vols.1-25 PDF's Vols.1-25 EPUB's

www.puritaninn.com

No, I believe very strongly that someone needs to edit and re-typeset the work. I have a pdf of the facsimile from EEBO on my computer, but this work needs a far vaster exposure than that.

 

[davejonescue]

No, I believe very strongly that someone needs to edit and re-typeset the work. I have a pdf of the facsimile from EEBO on my computer, but this work needs a far vaster exposure than that.

I see. While we didnt try to search out the Greek and Hebrew (though it looks very limited in the text) this copy has been ran through a specially designed corrector (up to 22,000 unique spelling mistakes so far,) and the font has been updated. I really didnt see anything about the type-set that would hinder reading. But, again, if you enjoy, you might like it better than a facsimile. As far as exposure: I cant do anything about that on my end until if and when the website becomes more popular. And unfortunately, I guess simply publishing it; whether physical or digital doesnt always equal mass exposure. I wonder how many books RHB for instance has published, that I know nothing about?

 

[greenbaggins]

David, that is great work, and maybe someone could take what you've done and do a final editing job (so that it would constitute a fully original, critically edited source). I want a hard copy eventually. I hate reading theology on a computer.

 

[NaphtaliPress]

I have working MS of some of Burges' work which if the Lord wills and the sponsors like the idea, could be part of Naphtali Press Special Editions after 2023. I would hate for the work that has been done on it (by our own MW former member on PB) to have gone to waste. Thus it is a better text that simply starting from EEB. But this year I have the last work by James Durham to edit which I've not had my editing paws on (lectures on Song of Solomon) and the final volume of Gillespie's shorter writings. With some Rutherford work for RHB on top of that for 2023 and potentially the translation of Voetius on the Sabbath finally gets to my hands to edit, I don't see much time for much else.

 

[Logan]

David, that is great work, and maybe someone could take what you've done and do a final editing job (so that it would constitute a fully original, critically edited source). I want a hard copy eventually. I hate reading theology on a computer.

Lane,
I'm the one who created the scripts to correct the variant spellings (using Alex Sarrouf's 6,000+ word list as a starting point and adding another 16,000 or so words so far). My mentality all along has been to produce something that is 90% of the way toward a final product. With that in mind, I've taken each of these works, corrected spelling, and then output them as PDF and epub for those who "want it now", but more importantly as plain text and Word documents. I plan on turning these over to any publisher or individual who wants them as the best starting point for producing a proofed work.

It's pretty much done at this point, and the nice thing is that it's all automated for the nearly 6,000 works David has found so far. Are they perfect? No, but they're pretty usable as is and will be the best starting place for production: the most tedious part (transcription and spelling correctly) is practically already done.

 

[davejonescue]

Lane,
I'm the one who created the scripts to correct the variant spellings (using Alex Sarrouf's 6,000+ word list as a starting point and adding another 16,000 or so words so far). My mentality all along has been to produce something that is 90% of the way toward a final product. With that in mind, I've taken each of these works, corrected spelling, and then output them as PDF and epub for those who "want it now", but more importantly as plain text and Word documents. I plan on turning these over to any publisher or individual who wants them as the best starting point for producing a proofed work.

It's pretty much done at this point, and the nice thing is that it's all automated for the nearly 6,000 works David has found so far. Are they perfect? No, but they're pretty usable as is and will be the best starting place for production: the most tedious part (transcription and spelling correctly) is practically already done.

I am on the last page of Calamys name search. Found about 200 works from around 80 authors so far. Will shoot those to you probably tomorrow if you didnt already get them from the Zotero Puritan Public. Talk to you laters.

 

[NaphtaliPress]

Lane,
I'm the one who created the scripts to correct the variant spellings (using Alex Sarrouf's 6,000+ word list as a starting point and adding another 16,000 or so words so far). My mentality all along has been to produce something that is 90% of the way toward a final product. With that in mind, I've taken each of these works, corrected spelling, and then output them as PDF and epub for those who "want it now", but more importantly as plain text and Word documents. I plan on turning these over to any publisher or individual who wants them as the best starting point for producing a proofed work.

It's pretty much done at this point, and the nice thing is that it's all automated for the nearly 6,000 works David has found so far. Are they perfect? No, but they're pretty usable as is and will be the best starting place for production: the most tedious part (transcription and spelling correctly) is practically already done.

Logan, I direct this to Dave too just to reiterate and confirm from my recent experience with Rutherford, Durham and Gillespie, just how buggy these texts can be and that you need to be very clear to the end user that words and sentences are commonly missing as well as the Greek and Hebrew if originally present. The quality of EEBO texts varies by state of the original microfilm and the motivation of the typist on spending the time to figure out a blurred or obscured word. and motivation is low is seems. I use EEBO texts as check texts. In addition to misread words ("saith" for "faith" and vice versa), there are literally hundreds or thousands of ellipses, sometimes rendered [...], where you may have one or two or no letters of a word or words. So a single "h" with an ellipse may be "the," "he" "she", "hell", "heaven," etc. I have also in the past found examples where the typist commits the common error of skipping a line or lines of text between the same word, so sometimes even lines of text are missing. The reader of these files needs to know that and anyone, I see no way around this, who wants to take an EEBO text and produce a publishable one, absolutely has to do a word by word, line by line, reading and correcting against an original. The texts are great for what I use them for since they are good enough to check my work texts not based on EEBO, though it is possible events align such that a skipped word in my base text, is also missing for some reason in the EEBO. These generally have to be caught by a full reading if not a line by line check as well. So if it is not already coming with a fair warning label, please do make this clear to the end user of these texts.

 

[davejonescue]

Logan, I direct this to Dave too just to reiterate and confirm from my recent experience with Rutherford, Durham and Gillespie, just how buggy these texts can be and that you need to be very clear to the end user that words and sentences are commonly missing as well as the Greek and Hebrew if originally present. The quality of EEBO texts varies by state of the original microfilm and the motivation of the typist on spending the time to figure out a blurred or obscured word. and motivation is low is seems. I use EEBO texts as check texts. In addition to misread words ("saith" for "faith" and vice versa), there are literally hundreds or thousands of ellipses, sometimes rendered [...], where you may have one or two or no letters of a word or words. So a single "h" with an ellipse may be "the," "he" "she", "hell", "heaven," etc. I have also in the past found examples where the typist commits the common error of skipping a line or lines of text between the same word, so sometimes even lines of text are missing. The reader of these files needs to know that and anyone, I see no way around this, who wants to take an EEBO text and produce a publishable one, absolutely has to do a word by word, line by line, reading and correcting against an original. The texts are great for what I use them for since they are good enough to check my work texts not based on EEBO, though it is possible events align such that a skipped word in my base text, is also missing for some reason in the EEBO. These generally have to be caught by a full reading if not a line by line check as well. So if it is not already coming with a fair warning label, please do make this clear to the end user of these texts.

I see your point. But after researching some into the methodology of EEBO-TCP, they did have safe-guards, and didnt go into this project willy-nilly. Any text that was not 99% accurate with the EEBO original was rejected and sent back for re-type or edit. EEBO-TCP garnished almost $15-$20,000,000 in funding to complete Phase I & Phase II. The reason they seem "messed up" to some people is because they tried to stay as accurate to the original EEBO copies; not only in spelling, but in character/font similarity. Outside of EEBO, a majority of, if not most, would not have any access to these texts; save for universities and wealthy private collectors. Many of these texts may have been completely lost. Yes, sometimes an "s" is in place of an "f" or vice versa. Sometimes one has to guess a word (which is pretty easy to do within its context,) and no, the Greek and Hebrew is left out (which in fact the large chunk of Christianity does not know Greek or Hebrew anyway.) These text (we are creating) are for scholars as well; but they are not specifically for scholars. They are for the entire Christian community who simply want to be edified by good Puritan works.

There is little reason for these texts to be left in the hands of "specialists," or those privy to expensive antique works to compare them to. EEBO-TCP is accepted, I believe, in most formal educational settings as a valid scholarly reference already. I hope I am wrong, but I hope this hesitancy does not come from a place that publishing these works is now in the hands of "the common man," that is; with the technology today, including POD, a person can use these texts and not have to wait years and years for a work to come out, that is, even if it is on someones radar to do so. Also, are you really telling me that a general Christian, for instance, cannot go to EEBO-TCP, look up these works, and be edified? The things you mention, though they sound so troubling, are less than 1% of the entire corpus, if that. And it is often troubling that it keeps getting thrown around as if the whole thing (EEBO-TCP) should be disregarded for lack of its perfection.

There are about 6,000 Puritan and Non-Conformists works in EEBO-TCP covering almost 800 authors, or roughly 10% of the 60,000 works they produced. Dr. Beeke said at the Puritan Conference that roughly 800 Puritan works/reprints now exist; covering around 200 authors, probably many of them reprints of the facsimiles or reproductions of 19th century works. Are we supposed to wait for the limited publishers who even attempt Puritan works to get around to publishing the work we may desire; especially now that the corpus is accessible? What about the sheer amount of Puritan works and authors that have not seen the light of day since the age in which they lived? You go on the most of the Puritan sites or groups; and the same 20 to 30 Puritans are mentioned. Again, there are close to 800 of them with publicly accessible works in EEBO-TCP alone!

Now I think I understand the severity in which you take your publishing trade, and the preciousness of these works in your mind; but I also consider the severity that many of these Puritans and Non-Conformists suffered for their convictions. They were imprisoned, stripped of their ministries, thrust into poverty, disfigured, tortured, or killed. How is it a service to their memories of the sacrifices they went through to let their works sit idle in the back of some obscure catalogue somewhere, when they can be thrust into the public, even if imperfectly? If none of these peoples works are given the light of day, it is as if they have never existed. Putting their works out gives people the opportunity to investigate them. Nobody controls the flux of public domain Puritan literature into the hands of the greater public. We have provided a note on the condition of the EEBO-TCP texts. But we are not going to try and dissuade people from reading and gleaning from them. Our hope is that as many people as possible read them; especially given that within your lifetime, or Dr. Beekes lifetime, or for the greater foreseeable future; only a fraction of the Puritan corpus EEBO-TCP offered us free of charge will even be reprinted.

What I am saying is all in love, no malice at all. But we just see different as to the value and needfulness of these works to be corrected (to the best of present ability,) republished (even if digitally,) and offered to the public. This is not counting the interest in the more obscure works once the Logos Index makes it possible to search within this entire corpus in a matter of seconds. I hope this enlightens a better understanding as to the why, at least, I see the need for this to happen this way. And to why I consider it an almost impossibility for someone or some team to first secure an original of each of the 6,000 works, and then line by line comb over them all to publish them in a way that you would like. You know how hard it is to garnish sponsors and support for the limited works your publishing company does. Who is going to monetarily support a project like that?

And this is just speaking for myself. Logan and Alex may see it differently.

 

[NaphtaliPress]

I see your point. But after researching some into the methodology of EEBO-TCP, they did have safe-guards, and didnt go into this project willy-nilly. Any text that was not 99% accurate with the EEBO original was rejected and sent back for re-type or edit. EEBO-TCP garnished almost $15-$20,000,000 in funding to complete Phase I & Phase II. The reason they seem "messed up" to some people is because they tried to stay as accurate to the original EEBO copies; not only in spelling, but in character/font similarity. Outside of EEBO, a majority of, if not most, would not have any access to these texts; save for universities and wealthy private collectors. Many of these texts may have been completely lost. Yes, sometimes an "s" is in place of an "f" or vice versa. Sometimes one has to guess a word (which is pretty easy to do within its context,) and no, the Greek and Hebrew is left out (which in fact the large chunk of Christianity does not know Greek or Hebrew anyway.) These text (we are creating) are for scholars as well; but they are not specifically for scholars. They are for the entire Christian community who simply wants to be edified by good Puritan works.

There is little reason for these texts to be left in the hands of "specialists," or those privy to expensive antique works. EEBO-TCP is accepted, I believe, in most formal educational settings as a valid scholarly reference. I hope I am wrong, but I hope this hesitancy does not come from a place that publishing these works is now in the hands of "the common man," that is; with the technology today, including POD, a person can use these texts and not have to wait years and years for a work to come out. Also, are you really telling me that a general Christian, for instance, cannot go to EEBO-TCP, look up these works, and be edified? The things you mention, though they sound so troubling, are less than 1% of the entire corpus. And it is often troubling that it keeps getting thrown around as if the whole thing should be disregarded for lack of its perfection.

There are about 6,000 Puritan and Non-Conformists works in EEBO-TCP covering almost 800 authors, or roughly 10% of the 60,000 works they produced. Dr. Beeke said at the Puritan Conference that roughly 800 Puritan works/reprints now exist; covering around 200 authors, probably many of them reprints of the facsimiles or reproductions of 19th century works. Are we supposed to wait for the limited publishers who even attempt Puritan works to get around to publishing the work we may desire? What about the sheer amount of Puritan works and authors that have not seen the light of day since the age in which they lived? You go on the most of the Puritan sites or groups; and the same 20 to 30 Puritans are mentioned. Again, there are close to 800 of them with publicly accessible works in EEBO-TCP alone.

Now I understand the severity in which you take your publishing trade; but I also consider the severity that many of these Puritans and Non-Conformists suffered for their convictions. They were imprisoned, stripped of their ministries, thrust into poverty, disfigured, tortured, or killed. How is it a service to their memories of the sacrifices they went through to let their works sit idle in the back of some obscure catalogue somewhere, when they can be thrust into the public, even if imperfectly? If none of these peoples works are given the light of day, it is as if they have never existed. Putting their works out gives people the opportunity to investigate them. Nobody controls the flux of public domain Puritan literature into the hands of the greater public. We have provided a note on the condition of the EEBO-TCP texts. But we are not going to try and dissuade people from reading and gleaning from them. Our hope is that as many people as possible read them; especially given that within your lifetime, or Dr. Beekes lifetime, or for the greater foreseeable future; only a fraction of the Puritan corpus EEBO-TCP offered us free of charge will even be reprinted.

What I am saying is all in love, no malice at all. But we just see different as to the value and needfulness of these works to be corrected, rebranded, and offered to the public. This is not counting the interest in the more obscure works once the Logos Index makes it possible to search within this entire corpus in a matter of seconds. I hope this enlightens a better understanding as to the why, at least, I see the need for this to happen. And this is just speaking for myself. Logan and Alex may see it differently.

Dave, a 1% error rate is a lot of words affected. For the work by Rutherford I'm currently working on, there are about 2000 ellipses which means at least 2000 words affected, but there are other errors in typing and missed text as I say. These words affected range from the minor to affecting the sense. From my experience such a warning to expect missing words and sometimes more than that is required as fair warning, particularly if someone gets the not original idea to take the texts to use for publishing.

 

[davejonescue]

Dave, a 1% error rate is a lot of words affected. For the work by Rutherford I'm currently working on, there are about 2000 ellipses which means at least 2000 words affected, but there are other errors in typing and missed text as I say. These words affected range from the minor to affecting the sense. From my experience such a warning to expect missing words and sometimes more than that is required as fair warning, particularly if someone gets the not original idea to take the texts to use for publishing.

We have included a note in each of the works. But the works will also be in the public domain (like EEBO-TCP is now.) What people do with them will be up to them. All of these works can be traced back to EEBO-TCP. But since EEBO is a university based subscription checking the TCP with the EEBO will be hard for most unless they know about an RSA subscription or can access a university one. As far as owning an original; that will be off limits to a majority of the world that are not wealthy. I simply have to trust the EEBO-TCP text, because it is all God in his wisdom, has provided us with at the moment for a majority of these works.

 

[NaphtaliPress]

We have included a note in each of the works. But the works will also be in the public domain (like EEBO-TCP is now.) What people do with them will be up to them. All of these works can be traced back to EEBO-TCP. But since EEBO is a university based subscription checking the TCP with the EEBO will be hard for most unless they know about an RSA subscription or can access a university one. As far as owning an original; that will be off limits to a majority of the world that are not wealthy. I simply have to trust the EEBO-TCP text, because it is all God in his wisdom, has provided us with at the moment for a majority of these works.

What sort of note? Trust EEBO how? Certainly the error rate from my experience is a problem. If you've given sufficient warning as I've outlined then I'm satisfied. But as someone who has worked with the TCP texts against originals maybe half a dozen times, I could not say I trust the texts to be accurate to what the author wrote other than generally; there will be missing words, typos, etc., well beyond what was ever acceptable in a published texts.

 

[davejonescue]

What sort of note? Trust EEBO how? Certainly the error rate from my experience is a problem. If you've given sufficient warning as I've outlined then I'm satisfied. But as someone who has worked with the TCP texts against originals maybe half a dozen times, I could not say I trust the texts to be accurate to what the author wrote other than generally; there will be missing words, typos, etc., well beyond what was ever acceptable in a published texts.

This is the warning/note I have utilized for the Puritan Index for Logos, and for the published works at The Puritan Inn.

"Project Note – V2

This Work is Licensed Under 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

The initial content of this document was downloaded from the Early English Books Online (EEBO-TCP) website. The books were transcribed in a character for character manner and since there was no standard spelling during that time, it can be a bit cumbersome to read, with variations such as "unlesse", "vnlesse", and "vnles" appearing regularly.

With that in mind, this project is intended to clean up those books as much as possible and make them more accessible to the interested reader. A list of variant spellings and their corrections was utilized to clean up the text, but this is only as comprehensive as the list itself. Because of the nature of the original transcription, some words have missing characters or places where the original language (e.g., Greek) was not transcribed. The original text also contained linked footnotes and these have not been incorporated. Included in these works are some, but very limited text taken from other public domain sources.

Although this is admittedly no substitute for a properly proofread and scholarly edition, we believe that the result is a body of work which is far more accessible, particularly for searching and reading, than its predecessor (though our thankfulness for EEBO-TCP cannot be expressed.) The documents have been cleaned and presented to the best of our present ability, in what we hope is a pleasing and useful format for the vast majority of Christian brothers and sisters who desire to access and read these spiritually nourishing works.

For the sake of this collection, it has attempted to take a traditional theological as well as historical approach to Puritan research, meaning that, while there were some Arminian Puritans, those have been omitted if observed, and also, while there were other Non-Conformists that were Catholic, Quaker, Brownist, Pilgrims, etc., this collection has tried to observe only works from theologically reformed Puritans; Baptist, Presbyterian, and Congregational Non-Conformists; as well as CoE or Anglican clergy that were sympathetic or assistive to the Puritan cause. Furthermore, this collection only contains works from the period between 1500-1700, not just because that is the standard historical period of Puritanism, but because this is also the limit of the works found on EEBO-TCP. This is not an exhaustive collection of Puritan/Non-Conformist works, but a collection of those pertinent works which were located on EEBO-TCP which enables the searching thereof by their conversion from facsimile to text. The reason the alphabetical flow of the authors in these titles are not perfectly in order, is because many names were added well into the compiling of these texts, and we had to choose between prolonging publication to start over, or continue and publish with the names somewhat out of order.

Finally, please forgive our eagerness in the midst of imperfection in offering such an errant publication. Given the sheer number of texts, time constraints, and other duties; this is the best we can offer for now; yet, knowing the spiritual treasures within these pages, we pray that this effort, though feeble, will still result in the edification of His Church, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the glorification of our Gracious God. ***All of the text and titles included in these works are in the public domain, and can be used in any way; for profit or otherwise, by anybody or entity. Only this specific derivative and creative work is bound by the creative common license listed above. -- Soli Deo Gloria

David Jonescue – Document Preparation / Source Retrieval
Logan West – Programming / Word List
Alex Sarrouf – Initial & Eventual Word List"

And yes, I trust EEBO-TCP since the entire project was hosted by a co-op from numerous universities, including Oxford, and cost almost $20,000,000 of which the Puritan works alone constitute about $1.5-$2 million of that funding being 10% of the project. While I did not post this note as to appease your specific desire for one, we did heed your initial request for one at the beginning of the project as a wise inclusion. But again, we are not going to try and dissuade people from reading the works, (on the contrary we are going to promote people do so,) nor are we going to overcast the entire project with doubt as an untrustworthy alternative to the "surety" of professionally published works. We all feel (at least those who are working on this) that these texts will be extremely beneficial to the Christian community, even if some will be hesitant to embrace them, which is expected.

 

[Regi Addictissimus]

The big one that still needs publishing is Anthony Burgess's work on justification. In my opinion nothing else even comes close to mattering compared to that.

Patience, my friend. The next few years are going to be very exciting for lovers of the Puritans.

 

[alexanderjames]

The big one that still needs publishing is Anthony Burgess's work on justification. In my opinion nothing else even comes close to mattering compared to that.

Since Burgess is/was Dr Beeke's favourite, it is somewhat surprising more of his material has not been available through RHB.
However, given RHB's output of Puritan titles in recent years, I do have high hopes. Thank you Robert..

Patience, my friend. The next few years are going to be very exciting for lovers of the Puritans.

 

[alexanderjames]

I agree. The Puritan Inn alone should have close to 6,000 titles of Puritan and Non-Conformists works in PDF & EPUB for download. Not to mention the Puritan Index for Logos, plus all the works Dr. Beeke said RHB is coming out with in physical form. I look forward to it.

Thanks David. How readable are the titles from the puritan inn now?

 

[davejonescue]

Thanks David. How readable are the titles from the puritan inn now?

Sorry. I deleted that post because I felt convicted it might be boastful. But since you caught it, I will respond. The "readability" of the texts is kind of a subjective question. For me, the original EEBO-TCP texts were quite easy to read; and it has always baffled me, still to this day, many within Christian circles who refuse to even consider them as a reference; but that is besides the point. The texts, I feel, are as readable as any. Again, this is my opinion. It comes even more into to play once one realizes that the likelihood that many of these texts, by many of these authors, will be published in any better form in their lifetime is slim. This increases the value of the corrections and formatting that has already been made to them. Just in the past 5 days, I have hunted down 60 more works covering about 20 authors; bringing the total number of works and authors that will be represented on the Puritan Inn (eventually) to about 850 Puritan & Non-Conformist authors, and 5,900 works. All corrected to the point of a misspelling only occurring 50 times or less within the 450,000+ page corpus. Of course these are not perfect; but EEBO-TCP in its own function sent back works that were not 99% accurate, we have improved on that 99% accuracy about 90%. Some will argue that this is still too much error to be useful; and that is their choice. But Project Puritas feels that there is so much gold laying dormant in the recesses of TCP, that we are doing Christendom a disservice if it is in our ability to bring it out, but dont. This will become even more relevant when the subsequent Index is completed, and peoples interests are peaked having narrowed down a previously unknown author to them, and the only place their works are located in a user friendly forum are those that have been cleaned and converted and uploaded by one of us.

I am a firm believer, that the main reason many only really engage with the same 20 or 30 Puritans and Non-Conformists, is because there is no present mechanism that makes mining the entirety of their works, easy. This then has left it mostly up to scholars with access to huge libraries and rare works to do the digging for us. This is one thing I am excited about. This is going to change soon. Soon; anybody, regardless of income will be able to download Logos' free engine, and if they have the patience, upload 200-225 personal books that will make up the Index. Then, they will have the corpus to mine, and the Puritan Inn to find the collection of works from the authors they now may be interested in, to upload to their Kindles, E-Readers, or Tablets (if they do not want to read them within Logos.) Since the works will be in the public-domain; people will also be able to create POD books of these titles, if they prefer physical books for their leisure.

So yes, I am very exited for the next couple of years. Especially because I too will get the joy of digging in just as much as everyone else.

This has never been a goal to compete with formal publishers, but instead as a stand-by until publishers have a chance to get to the authors we may now presently provide. Hopefully, one day, all of the works will be professionally published; but until that day, we have offered what we feel, is the next best thing. This is also not to mention that even if publishers do get o the titles, that many people in many parts of the world cannot afford them. Take Africa for example. Projections have Africa within 20 years being the largest Christian continent on earth. These works will serve to bless them with solid Puritan literature, if their economic situation doesnt change in many parts of it, being the EPUBS are not only free, but can be accessed from their smartphones.

 

[alexanderjames]

Sorry. I deleted that post because I felt convicted it might be boastful. But since you caught it, I will respond. The "readability" of the texts is kind of a subjective question. For me, the original EEBO-TCP texts were quite easy to read; and it has always baffled me, still to this day, many within Christian circles who refuse to even consider them as a reference; but that is besides the point. The texts, I feel, are as readable as any. Again, this is my opinion. It comes even more into to play once one realizes that the likelihood that many of these texts, by many of these authors, will be published in any better form in their lifetime is slim. This increases the value of the corrections and formatting that has already been made to them. Just in the past 5 days, I have hunted down 60 more works covering about 20 authors; bringing the total number of works and authors that will be represented on the Puritan Inn (eventually) to about 850 Puritan & Non-Conformist authors, and 5,900 works. All corrected to the point of a misspelling only occurring 50 times or less within the 450,000+ page corpus. Of course these are not perfect; but EEBO-TCP in its own function sent back works that were not 99% accurate, we have improved on that 99% accuracy about 90%. Some will argue that this is still too much error to be useful; and that is their choice. But Project Puritas feels that there is so much gold laying dormant in the recesses of TCP, that we are doing Christendom a disservice if it is in our ability to bring it out, but dont. This will become even more relevant when the subsequent Index is completed, and peoples interests are peaked having narrowed down a previously unknown author to them, and the only place their works are located in a user friendly forum are those that have been cleaned and converted and uploaded by one of us.

I am a firm believer, that the main reason many only really engage with the same 20 or 30 Puritans and Non-Conformists, is because there is no present mechanism that makes mining the entirety of their works, easy. This then has left it mostly up to scholars with access to huge libraries and rare works to do the digging for us. This is one thing I am excited about. This is going to change soon. Soon; anybody, regardless of income will be able to download Logos' free engine, and if they have the patience, upload 200-225 personal books that will make up the Index. Then, they will have the corpus to mine, and the Puritan Inn to find the collection of works from the authors they now may be interested in, to upload to their Kindles, E-Readers, or Tablets (if they do not want to read them within Logos.) Since the works will be in the public-domain; people will also be able to create POD books of these titles, if they prefer physical books for their leisure.

So yes, I am very exited for the next couple of years. Especially because I too will get the joy of digging in just as much as everyone else.

This has never been a goal to compete with formal publishers, but instead as a stand-by until publishers have a chance to get to the authors we may now presently provide. Hopefully, one day, all of the works will be professionally published; but until that day, we have offered what we feel, is the next best thing.

I plan to download and transfer to my e-reader (now that I have one!). Again, thank you for your (and others') hard work with all of this. I definitely agree the exposure it offers to previously unread authors is very exciting.

 

[davejonescue]

I plan to download and transfer to my e-reader (now that I have one!). Again, thank you for your (and others') hard work with all of this. I definitely agree the exposure it offers to previously unread authors is very exciting.

Thank you for reminding me, and I will put a warning on the site today. But eventually I am going to redo all of those titles and that site with the entire corpus in alphabetical order once I finish this Index. Feel free to download what is on there now, but just be forewarned, that a very more comprehensive collection should be up within the next 6 months, that will include all the authors from Turners, and Calamys works as well. And it is our pleasure brother. We too get to benefit from having access to these, it is a blessing for us all.