FOBO: From Old Books dot Org: Pictures, Engravings & Extracts From Old Books

Rare and unusual stock images in unusually high quality.

Most of the images available on this Web site are cleaner scans and at higher resolution than you will find elsewhere (even if you can find the same images). I also have a library of books so if you don't see what you want, email liam at fromoldbooks dot org mentioning the colour of your socks in the subject, and describing the images you want. There's usually a scanning fee of Cdn$40 but this is negotiable if you have no shoes.

I can also make the original raw scan files available; usually these are between 1200dpi and 2400dpi greyscale or colour, and the files are often 200 MBytes or larger.

Some of the images are also on sale at alamy.com

For academic or non-profit use, or for other pictures on the Web site that are not listed under “stock images”, or in some cases for a lower price, contact me directly using the Comment link on the Web page for the item you want or email me as liam at holoweb dot net, mentioning the colour of your socks in the subject, and giving the full and complete URL (Web adress) of the image you want at higher quality.

• Decorative Initials and Drop Caps: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T Th U V W X Y Z
• Alphabets
• Decorative borders and frames

• Spooky Halloween pictures
• Romantic Valentine's pictures
• Thanksgiving pictures
• Christmas pictures
• Easter pictures

Sort by Title, Author, Year. Updated.

• A Political Dictionary by Charles Pigott (1795) a political satire; partial transcription with 463 entries Updated 2013-02-11.
• The Printers' Vocabulary by Charles Thomas Jacobi (1888); a dictionary of printing terms; New 2010-07-22.
• A Provincial Dictionary by Francis Grose (1790); 66 regional proverbs. New 2008-07-04.
• Dictionary of Phrase and Fable by E. Cobham Brewer (1894); over 17,000 entries! New 2008-02-15.
• Smiley's Recipe and Housekeeping Guide, historical recipes transcribed and annotated by CatamountClyde Studios; New 2007-11-02.
• Canting Dictionary by Nathan Bailey (1736), a dictionary of the slang of the underworld, of thieves, gypsies and vagrants. Text complete; new image added 29th June 2008; reformatted Jan 2010
• Dictionary of the Canting Tongue by Francis Grose (1811)
• Musa Pedestris: Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes [1536-1896] edited by John S. Farmer, 1896. Updated 2006-10-30.
• The Nuttall Encyclpædia, by the Rev. James Wood (1907) (over 14,000 entries; the claim of over 16,000 entries appears not to be correct) Updated 2007-08-04.
• Gesta Typograhica by Chas. T. Jacobi, 1897 [various facts about printing; I am still working on the formatting] Updated 2008-01-30.
• Oratio Dominica, or, The Lord’s Prayer in over a hundred Languages, Versions and Characters (Scripts) by Dan Brown (1713). I have scanned every page, and also an insert folded in the back, so this book is complete.
• Dictionary of Proverbs by Nathan Bailey, 1721. The whole book in text and images (complete)
• The Grammar of Heraldry, by Samuel Kent 1718. I have typed the first chapter on how to Blazon, etc., and will do more if requested. See below on this page for a link to the page images for this book.
• Universal Etymological English Dictionary, edited by Nathan Bailey, 1736. A little under 500 entries, but very incomplete; this is a transcription I started in 1991. It is a different book than the dictionary containing the Canting Dictionary.
• The Itinerary of John Leland the Antiquary edited by Thomas Hearne, 1745. 122 page images including cover and title page; I have started to transcribe names that appear in the text. Updated 2007-05-20.

See the list of books...

The list of books toether with some sample images from each one

• Pictures of some of my old books
  Photographs of some of the books. I choose books because the contents interest me rather than because they have smart bindings or are valuable, and I prefer copies with a broken spine if I plan to scan from them, so they are not always very pretty.
• Pictures of books
  Old pictures that show books or that depict books in some way; also includes photographs of books.

I am a private individual, not a professional bookseller: I don't buy books to sell them. But I am selling some of my own books.

Rare books for sale

I have some old and some very old books and I like to share the beautiful pictures so that other people can see and use them. When I can, I type (or OCR) the text.

I am not a bookseller - I do not buy books with a view to selling them.

Are you interested in helping out? If you are good at image editing and have a fast net connection, you could help me clean up scans. Or maybe you have some old images to share? (minimum 800dpi please; one of the unusual things about this Web site is the high quality of the images). Or some old books you don’t want? Let me know, liam at holoweb dot net. Mention the colour of your socks in the Subject line. (You can also see some pictures by Liam himself if you like.)

I list on a separate page some of the books in the scanning queue. Let me know if you’d like me to scan specific images, or if you need higher resolution copies, or have any interesting uses for these images, or like them.

Some links to sites that link here; contact me to be added here or to the gallery.

Cookies

I don't use cookies at all on this site. However, the site is supported by advertisers, including Google Adsense, more than by donations or stock image sales. The third party advertisers may use cookies.

This site is run by a Canadian citizen who lives in Canada; the site is hosted in Canada.

Some supporters (links get cleaned out regularly)

Wind & Sky Productions in Australia, who used some of the pictures here in a documentary about Charles Dickens.

Some Common Searches That Get Here

Christmas Pictures · Spooky Halloween Images · Romantic Valentine's Day Pictures · Some sample uses · CD-ROM

castles, gravestones (tombstones), siege engines, pictures of books, oxford, Scottish castles, English castles, Welsh castles, manors

castle wallpaper (1024x768) and also 1600x1200 and 1680x1050; there are also lots of other 1024x768 wallpapers and screen backgrounds, also 1600x1200 desktop backgrounds.

People searching for free clipart, royalty-free stock clipart, castles in the middle ages, medieval castles or large castle pictures will find free images of all those things here.

There is also a page with a little more information about this site, a page of links and a privacy policy.