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A sixteenth century edition of predictions by Nostradamus has become the first book from France's vast archive of literature to be digitally preserved by Google. The collection of prophecies is from a vault containing 500,000 classic French books stored at the Municipal Library of Lyon.
Nostradamus is best known for The Prophecies, the first edition of which appeared in 1555 and has rarely been out of print since his death. France has a 750million euro (£650million) scheme in place to digitise its libraries and museums.
A new digital books deal between the Lyon library and US internet giant Google could signal the start of seeing the fiercely protective nation's works become fully accessible to the international public.
A team of retrained secretaries and IT experts has been hard at work in La Chatre, central France, packaging the nation's literary heritage for the digital era.
The company they work for, Safig, is one of the few European firms to digitise books, using automatic and human page-turners.
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