looking for a book on monitor theory

I'll echo that I don't think it's practical to do this. Modern multisync CRT monitors contain lots of circuitry to manage the various linearity and distortion problem imposed by the need to vary sweep frequencies. The horizontal sweep components, in particular, won't let you get much below 32 Khz or so. I suppose one could use a TV-freqency video "frame grabber" on a PC to acquire then display on a modern monitor, but that seems to be the long way around the job. Far better to find an inexpensive broadcast receiver and hack into the video and sync circuitry as needed. My first 64-column monitor (hooked to a modified SWTP TV Typewriter) was an old tube-type Zenith monochrome portable TV (with an isolation transformer on the mains supply, since this was a "hot chassis" model. Worked just fine until I latched onto a Beehive Super Bee terminal. Or cruise the junk shops for old monitors--there should still be a few wandering around that have 15-18 KHz horizontal sweeps. I think I even have an old Mitsubishi Diamond Scan monitor that will sync between TV and EGA frequencies. I use it with an RGB demodulator and an East German VCR to view PAL VHS tapes that friends from Europe send me. Cheers, Chuck