The combined workshops and seminars for the Palaeography, History of the Book and Digital Humanities provide training in dealing with manuscripts and books across different historical periods and European languages. The aim is to combine philological training with project work which takes seriously the material turn in Modern Languages and will enable students to do editorial work in the age of Digital Humanities. Within the framework of knowledge exchange, these two method options cooperate with the local libraries and printers to make use of the unparalleled richness of Oxford resources, especially the Taylor Institution Library and the Centre for the Study of the Book. Please consult the bibliography for introductory reading, also available as a hyperlinked ORLO (Oxford Reading Lists Online). 

Most sessions in Michaelmas Term 2024 will take place on Wednesdays, 3-5pm, in Room 2 of the Taylor Institution Library if not noted otherwise. Every Friday 10:30-11:30, there is the opportunity to go to the presentation of new acquisitions in the Weston Library, Visiting Scholars Centre. Some of the sessions are still tbc.

Preliminary weekly schedule for the course

Wk 1 (16 Oct), 3–5pm: Show & Tell Introductory Session (Taylorian, Room 2)
Treasures of the Taylorian with Emma Huber and Henrike Lähnemann
Friday (18 Oct), 9–12noon: Engaging with Print (Bodleian, Print Room)
Workshop on typesetting and printing pamphlets with Richard Lawrence

Wk 2 (23 Oct), 2–5pm: Palaeography (Weston, Horton Room)
Introduction to palaeography with Laure Miolo, and Alison Ray

Wk 3 (30 Oct), 3–5pm: Introduction to Text Encoding (Taylorian, Room 2)
with Henrike Lähnemann and Emma Huber 
Fr (1 Nov), 5-7pm: Launch of the Taylor Edition of Hans Sachs’ Reformation Dialogues

Wk 4 (6 Nov), 3–5pm: Introduction to image software (Taylorian, Room 2)
with Giles Bergel, Henrike Lähnemann and Emma Huber

Wk 5 (13 Nov) , 3–5pm: Caring for collections (St Edmund Hall)
Introduction to library management with the SEH library team

Wk 6 (22 Nov), 11:30 [!]–12.30pm: Masterclass Materiality (Bodleian, Horton Room)
Workshop with Andrew Honey and members of the Conservation Department 

Wk 7 (27 Nov), 3–5pm: Understanding Book Design
Workshop on Audrey Beardsley with Evanghelia Stead (Taylorian, Room 2)

Wk 8 (4 Dec), 3-5pm Defining your Project (Taylorian)
Abstract writing workshop for Hilary Term Project; matching up with supervisors

At the end of the second term each student submits an essay of between 5,000 and 7,000 words in length (the word count includes footnotes, but excludes bibliography). The coursework leading up to it consists of a portfolio of regular practical tasks such as writing a blog post, diy digitisation, test transcriptions, basic xml encoding and catalogue entries for books. Ideally, the essay focuses on source material available in Oxford libraries.