Script, Dockerfile, and instructions for downloading full-resolution images for an entire manuscript from the British Library.

NOTE: this script may not currently work after the British Library's restoration of manuscript image services following an extended outage due to a 2023 cyberattack. See this issue.

These instructions assume you already have a working Docker install running and some command-line familiarity.

1. Go to the webpage of the British Library manuscript you want to download. For our example we'll use Burney MS 86: https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=burney_ms_86

2. Open the image viewer for the manuscript and copy the resulting link, e.g.: https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=burney_ms_86_fs001r

3. Run the bl-dl Docker image using the image viewer link you just copied, and mapping the current directory into the /data volume, e.g.:

   docker run -ti -v "$(pwd)":/data ryanfb/bl-dl "https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=burney_ms_86_fs001r"
   

If you'd prefer not to use Docker, you can instead run this script natively. These instructions assume some command-line familiarity. The bl-dl.sh script also needs: bash, wget, sort, uniq, sed, grep, and fgrep installed.

1. Download the latest release of dezoomify-rs for your platform: https://github.com/lovasoa/dezoomify-rs/releases
2. Extract the download archive and open a terminal or command line prompt where the dezoomify-rs executable is available. Copy/move the dezoomify-rs excutable so that it is available on your PATH, e.g.: sudo mv -v dezoomify-rs /usr/local/bin/
3. Download this script: wget "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ryanfb/bl-dl/main/bl-dl.sh" - and make it executable, e.g.: chmod a+x bl-dl.sh
4. Go to the webpage of the British Library manuscript you want to download. For our example we'll use Burney MS 86: https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=burney_ms_86
5. Open the image viewer for the manuscript and copy the resulting link, e.g.: https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=burney_ms_86_fs001r
6. Run the bl-dl.sh script you downloaded using the image viewer link you just copied, e.g.: ./bl-dl.sh "https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=burney_ms_86_fs001r"
7. The script should automatically run dezoomify-rs to download the largest version available for every manuscript image.