Exploring the world of books at Oxford
Part 1 of: Printing an anniversary card for Sebastian Brant at the Bodleian Bibliographical Press Agnes Hilger A snippet from my school knowledge memorised some time ago: Johannes Gutenberg invented “letterpress printing with movable type”. As is so often the case with such facts, I didn’t really think about it much at the time and just put it …
A special issue on parchment will appear this September 2021 in Art in Translation Caroline Danforth One’s interests can ebb and flow unpredictably…and I have observed how some of my own passions have quickly bloomed…and then swiftly subsided. One such “flare-up” (which I feared would prove temporary) developed twenty-two years ago after being blind-sided by …
Carrie Heusinkveld The narratives lurking just beneath the surface of a book – the intertwining threads of its inspiration, creation, and original owner – are frequently overshadowed by the story told by the visible words on the page. However, investigating this hidden history often uncovers a surprisingly complex web of movements and connections traversing physical, …
Yesterday, in preparation for a Gregorian chant workshop and as part of the History of the Book show-and-tell sessions, Dr Andrew Dunning, R.W. Hunt Curator of Medieval Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, opened the Handbook of the Medingen Provost, Bodleian Library MS. Lat. liturg. e. 18. A full digitised copy is available, thanks to …
Sebastian Dows Miller on his History of the Book project, increasing awareness of the Bestiary in Merton College Library, MS 249.
Madeleine Ahern The Taylor Institution Library’s Latin copy of Martin Luther’s 1520 work On Christian Freedom (De Libertate Christiana) sits in the Special Collections storeroom on a rolling stack among an impressive selection of early modern printed texts from the Reformation. The text is identifiable by its shelfmark ARCH. 8o.G.1521.10 and its brown leather re-bound exterior with …
In this session, we are going to transform an academic paper into an academic blog post, closely examining the opportunities and challenges afforded by this medium of communication. (1) Methodological: Digital methods can aid us in our book historical research by (a) expanding the community of scholars with whom we engage and (b) expanding and reshaping the archival …
Was there an attempt at a revised edition Alfonso de Palencia’s 15th century translation of Plutarch’s Parallel Lives? Were there even multiple attempts? Think back to your school days. You’re sitting in English class, feeling somewhat shell-shocked by Shakespeare, daunted by Dickens, or simply befuddled by the language of [insert name of difficult-to-read and long-since-departed …
It is currently Week 0 of Hilary term 2021, so it’s time to get to work on our project for the History of the Book module. Holly and I have decided to work together to produce an online edition of a manuscript. We both love Dante’s Divina Commedia so we have decided to work on MS.Canon.Ital.108, which is a gorgeous late 14th Century copy of this work.
This article was originally posted on the Taylor Reformation blog which has now become part of the Taylor Editions website with a dedicated Reformation Pamphlets series. Anke von Claer-Schaar Image above: Title page of the play “Schwestern unter sich” by Anke von Claer-Schaar In June 2017, I was asked to write a theatre piece on the …