Exploring the world of books at Oxford
Posts about ongoing student work in the History of the Book course.
By Molly Bray (MSt in Medieval Studies) For our first session as book-historians-in-training, we asked the question, ‘what is a book?’ Is it the form, the function? Now, for our second session, we get to see and, indeed, operate the mechanics that make one. Held behind a large wooden door and the once-accurate waymarker of …
One of the Taylor Editions practicum placement students from the MSc in Digital Scholarship programme writes on creating different TikTok series inspired by the “Epic!: Homer and Nibelungenlied in Translation” and “Kafka’s Languages” exhibitions, as well as creating her own digital edition of a text inspired by the Kafka exhibition, displayed in the Voltaire Room at the Taylor Institution Library from 29 May–13 June.
One of the Taylor Editions practicum placement students from the MSc in Digital Scholarship programme writes on creating a digital edition of her own Slovak language learning notebook. Visit Kafka’s Languages in the Voltaire Room, Taylor Institution Library from 29 May–13 June to see the exhibition that inspired this project. For the 2022–23 academic year, …
«Κελαδήματα» by Tianyi Liu (MSt. Modern Languages 2023/24) For my History of the Book project in Hilary term 2024, I worked on an early 20th century Modern Greek poem called «κελαδήματα» [Birdsongs]. It was published in 1919 in the Greek journal «Ο λόγος», a physical copy of which is available in the Greek Reading Room …
Clara Busch, MSt. Modern Languages 2023-24 It is Monday, January 8th, and a small group of students and scholars gather it the Weston Library to have first look at what is to become the focus of our History of the Book project: Kafka’s Hebrew notebooks. 2024 marks the centenary of the death of Franz Kafka …
Exhibition in the Voltaire Room, Taylor Institution Library29 May to 13 June 2024 Who was Kafka? It is hard to escape Kafka at the moment in Oxford, with the Kafka24 celebrations marking 100 years since his death, on 3 June 1924. He is one of the most significant German-language authors of the 20th century, and …
David Hirsch studies Translation Studies at Heidelberg University and spent his mandatory placement in Oxford during Hilary Term 2024, working with Henrike Lähnemann I was very nervous arriving in Oxford, as I had never had an experience quite like this before. It was quite beneficial to me, then, to be instantly thrown in the deep …
By the end of Michaelmas term, I came across a volume at the Weston Library on which several villancico chapbooks were bound. The volume itself had no title, no index, no author. There was nothing that could point to its origin but a shelfmark – Arch. Sigma III 70 – belonging to an enigmatic collection. …
During Michaelmas Term 2023, Kira Kohlgrüber (Frankfurt) and Karen Wenzel (Augsburg) worked as research interns with Henrike Lähnemann. Here Kira reports on behalf of both of them on highlights of their time in the city, on working with manuscripts, Reformation pamphlets, and xml, and being part of the History of the Book group at the …
by Thomas Godfrey (MSt. Modern Languages 2021) As part of my MSt. in Modern Languages, I was fortunate enough to take Henrike Lähnemann’s method option, entitled Palaeography, History of the Book and Digital Humanities. This particular method option provides training in dealing with manuscripts and books, and the final assessment requires students to come up …