Exploring the world of books at Oxford
By Giovanna Truong (MSt Yiddish Studies) Oxford’s former Schola Musicae stands tucked in a corner of the Bodleian Old Library quadrangle. In modern times, neither harmonized voices nor metred strums resonate from behind that wooden door; rather, a different rhythm altogether emerges. The clack of type, the punch of the press, the busy murmurs of …
by Clara Busch (MSt. Modern Languages) Once more it is the first week of Michaelmas in Oxford and a new cohort of graduate students embark on their journey through the Modern Languages and, most importantly, the History of the Book(s). On this first Wednesday of term students, scholars, librarians, and fellow Bibliophiles gathered in the …
Taylor Institution Library Room 2Thursdays 1pm–2pm, even weeks Each session will include a brief talk or demonstration, followed by an opportunity for discussion. Hot water, tea, coffee, milk and biscuits will be provided. Please feel free to bring your own lunch (and a mug for the hot drinks!) Programme Michaelmas 2023 WEEK TWO (19TH OCTOBER):The …
Last week, we had the opportunity to have our session on ‘Caring for Collections’ and ‘Library Management’ at the charming Old Library at St Edmund Hall, an apt location given the date coinciding with the feast day of St Edmund. James Howarth, the librarian, first gave us an introduction on the early history of the …
By Charlotte Copeman Having spent the last five weeks building up our knowledge of manuscripts from paper, to ink, to assembly, to binding, last week’s Latin palaeography session finally brought us to the styling and construction of the letters and words themselves. Our crash-course began with Dr Laure Miolo introducing us to the three principal …
By Ksenia Dugaeva In our ‘Structures of the manuscript book’ seminar last week, we continued our foray into understanding how manuscripts come together – focusing in this session on the journey from sheet to codex to bound book. All of us browse, read, and generally handle books in our daily and academic lives, and a …
By Thomas Godfrey Understanding materiality can teach us a lot about a manuscript. Seeing as we will be looking at many manuscripts over the course of the year, we were granted the opportunity to get to grips with the fundamentals of how they are made. Through attending a workshop led by Andrew Honey, Robert Minte, …
A short report about my first time meeting Bodleian Library MS. Germ. e. 5 by Marlene Schilling To be honest, I had nearly forgotten about Bodleian Library Ms. Germ. e. 5 in the 18 month since handing in, in March 2021, my MSt. in Modern Languages Method Option essay that focused on this particular 14th century manuscript. I had spent …
Download entry form (Word) The Bodleian Centre for the Study of the Book offers a prize to an undergraduate or postgraduate student of the University of Oxford for a collection of books or other printed materials. Age, size and monetary value of the collection will not be relevant criteria; the aim is to champion collecting …
The lecture series by Henrike Lähnemann (Professor of Medieval German Literature and Linguistics) in Michaelmas Term 2022 at the Taylor Institution Library, Room 2, discusses German prose texts published in the first hundred years of printing. This includes a number of iconic texts written earlier such as the ‘Ackermann von Böhmen’ or transformed from verse …