Robinson\'s Armour of Imperial Rome

[Cornelius Quintus]

I have both, but Robinson is too big! The pages don't fit on the bed by quite a margin.

Ave Jasper,

ever thought about scanning large objects in two or more parts... :wink:
Are all of the illustrations really such large ones?

[Praefectusclassis]

That'd be three or four scans per 2 pages. I'm not masochistic!

[Cornelius Quintus]

That'd be three or four scans per 2 pages. I'm not masochistic!

Ave Jasper,

keep cool. You don't have to scan. Remember: You already own that book :lol:

My problem is: three or four Euros per 2 pages, if there's no better offer via abbooks...

[mcbishop]

That'd be three or four scans per 2 pages. I'm not masochistic!

Ave Jasper,

keep cool. You don't have to scan. Remember: You already own that book

Aside from issues of legality (and it is of course illegal to scan an entire book, regardless of 'fair dealing'/'fair use' which is only ever for a portion of a book), what the heck do you do with a scan of Robbo's masterpiece? Print it out (at A4 or US letter size that's not exactly easy to read)? Browse it in Irfanview (or, even worse, Internet Exploder)? The book (technically, a codex) is just such a superb invention that there can be no doubt that, even at hugely inflated prices, if you care about the subject, you should own a Robinson in book form. Sell the TV, cancel your newspaper, and use the money you save to buy a Robbo. After all, when you've finished reading it for the 33rd time (nothing else to do as you now have no TV or newspaper to read), you can always screw legs on each corner and use it as a coffee table.

Incidentally, somebody once scanned the whole of B&C1 and put it on the internet (I think it was an FTP site), presumably on the assumption that since it was out of print it was okay to do so (didn't bother asking the authors, of course). Rather than send me into spasms of wrath it made me chuckle for a whole day as they had scanned each page as a full-colour uncompressed BMP file, weighing in it around 1Mb each page; in the days of dial-up and slow modems, this was comedy therapy, rather than piracy.

Mike Bishop

[Cornelius Quintus]

Ave Mike,

we were just kidding.

Being a journalist (and also jurisprudent), I’ll never copy a whole book and offer it to the broad public, regardless of the download time. :lol:

Scanning parts of a title for personal and scientific purposes is another story, especially when the title is out of print for some decades. Preparing reconstruction drawings by scaling different helmet photos to the same size for example will need a (legal) scan.

I also have no problems to sell my TV to buy a brilliant new book, because the author and publisher deserve their money. I just hesitate to pay fantasy prices to second-hand dealers. Therefore I’ve set up my personal limit (which is a multiple of the former original price) and started a searching order on abbooks (and others). That’s matching an old German tradition. Books should be available to the public at fair prices and not become a matter of speculators.

By the way: In Germany, illegal copying of books isn’t the main problem. In contrary, often the publishers find themselves in the dock, because a lot of them won’t correctly square and pay the authors. In fact, even the big publishers often issue some editions in other countries without permission or knowledge of the authors (who surprisingly find their works in foreign bookshops while being on vacation).

Unfortionately no english publisher possessing the exploitation rights seems to think about earning a quick pound sterling by issuing a German ‘undercover’ edition of Robinson ;-) )

[Praefectusclassis]

That's the trouble. HRR is so big, it's hard to make it go undercover.

[Conal]

Is it possible to tell who has the copyright ? Might be able to shame them into a reprint ?

Why not buy a "club" copy ?

[Ross Cowan]

Is it possible to tell who has the copyright ? Might be able to shame them into a reprint ?

Why not buy a "club" copy ?

I got a book club edition for £10 in Glasgow, so cheap copies are available.

Re. copyright - Greenhill Books and Peter Connolly (i.e. the colour reconstructions and line drawings). Greenhill looked into the possibility of a reprint but decided against because of the costs involved.

R!

[Cornelius Quintus]

Ave Conal,

the copyright holder group seems to comprise of the Publishing House, who bought the former publisher, the Robinson family and a lot of museums or collections regarding special photographs.

And there might be some technical problems, too. It is no easy game to reprint a 30 years old book featuring hundreds of high quality illustrations without losing quality by - for example - simply scanning a surviving book...

Adding costs of printing and royalties/license fees might end up in a very high price... Such projecs often are only realizable with the help of sponsors.

[Cornelius Quintus]

Ave Ross,

thanks, I've forgotten Peter Connolly.

Did you mean a club edition of that book? hock: Still available?

[Conal]

I meant a few guys clubbing funds to buy a hsared copy. If that is allowed by copyright of course.

[Ross Cowan]

Ave Ross,

thanks, I've forgotten Peter Connolly.

Did you mean a club edition of that book? hock: Still available?

It's a Book Club edition from the 1970s. I spotted it in a secondhand bookshop in Glasgow a few years ago. There should be a good few more around. It's identical to the original Arms and Armour Press version. Club editions are sometimes in a reduced format.

If enough members of this forum express an interest in a reprint, Greenhill may be persuaded to have a rethink.

R!

[Dan Diffendale]

I blame Robinson for the current fetishism of individual Roman helmets. Call me a loose ballista, but I think people get too worked up about individual details on individual helmets. What about the mass of Italic helmets? Greek helmets? They have their broad classes.

[mcbishop]

Re. copyright - Greenhill Books and Peter Connolly (i.e. the colour reconstructions and line drawings). Greenhill looked into the possibility of a reprint but decided against because of the costs involved.

Not strictly correct (and I know this through correspondence with Lionel Leventhal, who owned Arms and Armour Press at the time). Peter certainly owns the copyright on the line illustrations and colour reconstructions (plate 1 and dust jacket - Peter's name was taken off this, but that of course does not in any way affect his copyright) whilst I think you'll find that the estate of HRR owns the copyright on the text, photos and drawings that HRR contributed and that lasts for 70 years after the death of HRR (so round about 2048); the rest of the photos belong to various other copyright holders, mainly institutions. The copyright on the design, typography and layout of the book is a different kettle of fish; in the UK that is (and I have to believe Lionel on this one) only 25 years after the date of publication, so that expired in 2000. I don't think Greenhill have a claim on it as they came along after the event, but since it is now LL's company, it was him I approached, since he did the original edition.

And for those who don't know, Lionel was indeed kind enough to go through the motions of costing out a reprint at my suggestion.

Mike Bishop

[Conal]

Mike

when it proved too costly ... did that mean the retail value would be beyond a reasonable price ?

Even if they came in at £100 they would beat 2nd hand values by a mile:?

Conal