Exploring the world of books at Oxford
Welcome to the Taylor Institution Library! The Taylor Institution is the University of Oxford’s library for Modern Foreign Languages. It was funded by Sir Robert Taylor in a codicil to his will in 1788. Due to his will being contested, the University didn’t have access to the funds until 1834, when it was also considering …
Eighth week of Michaelmas brought the moment we had all been waiting for… having spent the term learning from the experts, it was time for the History of the Book students to put all their newly-founded knowledge into practice. With over a million special collections items to choose from, finding a project was no easy …
Guest blog by Carol Regulski on the launch of her transcription of Hieronymus Emser’s book Auß was grund vnnd vrsach Luthers dolmatschung / vber das nawe testament / dem gemeinē man billich vorbotten worden sey (Leipzig: Wolfgang Stöckel, 1523) https://editions.mml.ox.ac.uk/editions/emser/ My attention was first drawn to Emser’s book in 2009, when Professor David Yeandle at …
The anthology of poems and pictures based on the Year Abroad project by Tara Williams, sponsored by a Lidl GB award from the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages. Download the eBook as two-on-one pdf or read it on Google Books. Watch the launch: Tara Williams writes: This anthology, comprising of ten poems with accompanying …
The South-East UK Early Modern German Network is delighted to announce its 2025 programme which focusses on early modern printing practices and material culture. All welcome! Monday 20 January, 13:30-15:00, Zoom OnlineJacqui Pearce (Museum of London Archaeology) Bartmann Goes Global! How German stoneware travelled round the known world in the 16th/17th century Monday 3 February, …
Week five’s class at St Edmund Hall offered a fascinating glimpse into the world of library management and the art of caring for collections. Guided by James Howarth, the Hall Librarian, and Emma Carter, the Assistant Librarian, we delved into the practical and philosophical aspects of preserving books—not just for their content, but also for …
by Viviane Arnold, MSt. Modern Languages As the term slowly is coming to the end we had another highlight in our History of the Book course. The class was taught by Andrew Honey, a Book Conservator from the Bodleian Libraries who gave us exciting insights in the method of bookbinding and showed us how the …
By Matthew McConkey As anyone who has grappled with Single Sign-on can attest, humanities researchers and IT are often uneasy bedfellows. It was this perceived <div>ide that the 2024 history of the book students confronted last Wednesday: just what hides behind the intimidating pseudonyms ‘XML’ and ‘TEI?’ Luckily, we had an expert guide in Emma …
Following our foray into textual encoding last week, Dr Giles Bergel joined us from the Visual Geometry Group (https://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/~vgg/) to talk about book-historical uses of computer vision. Originally trained as a book historian, Dr Bergel gave us an overview of the theory behind it, how it has been used in humanities projects, and what computer …
By Edie Young (MSt in Modern Languages) Last week, History of the Book students had the rare opportunity to examine Merton College’s collection of mediaeval astronomical instruments, which were exceptionally out of their cases. Dr Laure Miolo gave a dazzling presentation on mediaeval astrolabes, equatoria, quadrants, and astronomical manuscripts. Laure brought her very own replica …
By Henrike Lähnemann Preface to the Edition 2024 marks the 500th anniversary of Hans Sachs publishing in quick succession four prose dialogues which became bestsellers, particularly the first one where he has his alter ego, Hans the cobbler, debate a pompous priest – and win the day, of course. That the Taylorian was aware of …