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Pressing Matters

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 …

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Around Oxford Hands-On Libraries

Stroke a Book: Michaelmas 2023 Edition

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 …

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Ancient Codex
About HoB Editions Exhibitions Libraries Palaeography

Book Launch and Exhibition; The Lailashi Codex: The Crown of Georgian Jewry

“One hundred and fifty years after the first news on the manuscript, Thea Gomelauri’s The Lailashi Codex presents the first and long-awaited study of one of the most ancient Hebrew Pentateuch.”

This publication brings the fascinating history and content of the Lailashi Codex to the public domain, for the first time, tracing its turbulent journey replete with mysteries, imprisonments, executions, inaccurate references, conflicting records, unsubstantiated claims, possessions and re-possessions, controversies, and miracles, and ending with a most surprising discovery and the hope of addressing issues related to the cultural memory of this exquisite artefact.

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About HoB

History of the Book: some introductory reading

Preparatory reading matter for the Method Option ‘Palaeography, History of the Book, Digital Humanities’ focussing on general introductions to book history which are easily available via SOLO. Updated version of a commented list compiled by Nigel F. Palmer; in chronological order of first publication. For Oxford students: This is available as a hyperlinked list on …

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Around Oxford Editions Exhibitions

Early Modern Monsters in the Taylorian

Exhibition held in the Voltaire Room, Taylor Institution Library, Oxford University, June 2023. The exhibition has grown out of the collaboration of students from the MSt in Modern Languages who edited the German and French pamphlets as part of the ‘History of the Book’ Method Option, one intern, Elena Trowsdale, from the MSc in Digital Scholarship with Emma Huber at the Taylorian who edited the English pamphlet, and an Art History intern from Hamburg University, Anja Peters, with Henrike Lähnemann. The two interns co-curated the edition which launches also the edition of the three early modern pamphlets in the Taylor Institution Library’s Reformation Pamphlets series. Thanks go to the librarians of New College which holds the French pamphlet, to the Bodleian Library which holds the English pamphlet, to Clare Hills-Nova for the Artists Book, to James Howarth for the loan of the beakhead, to Wes Williams for his advice on early modern monsters, to Jim Harris for opening the Ashmolean print room treasures, and to the whole team at the Taylor Institution Library for their help and support.

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Around Oxford Exhibitions

Nigel Palmer as Library Fellow at St Edmund Hall

In honour of the symposium Literary, religious and manuscript cultures of the  German-speaking lands:  a  symposium  in memory of Nigel F. Palmer (1946-2022) on 19/20 May 2023, St Edmund Hall librarian James Howarth set up an exhibition in the Old Library of books related to the late Professor Nigel F. Palmer’s research, his activities and …

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