Exploring the world of books at Oxford
By Isidor Acton, MSt student in Medieval French (2026). The header image feature MS Douce f.1 This week, we assembled in the Weston Library for the second instalment of our crash-course in palaeography with Dr Laure Miolo, who encouraged us to adopt an all-encompassing approach to reconstructing the history of each book we encounter. We …
by Leena Khabanda, MSt. Modern Languages (2026) What is palaeography? This is the question that stood at the very centre of this seminar. Taken literally, ‘paleo’ means ancient and ‘graphy’ means writing, suggesting that palaeography means the history of writing. However, it soon becomes clear that the discipline extends far beyond the mere deciphering of …