Around Oxford Hands-On Libraries Palaeography

Teams Teaching Codicology. The Joy of Opening Manuscripts during Lockdown

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 …

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Around Oxford Digital Humanities

500 Years in the Making: Editing Luther’s De Libertate Christiana

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 …

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Come Live Edit a Blog Post! ‘In Search of an Apostle: Uncovering the Roots of the Taylorian Janua with Digital Methods’

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 …

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Student Projects

Unfinished Business? – Modern Revisions and The Intriguing Case of an Annotated Spanish Incunabulum.

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 …

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Hidden in Plain Sight: Secret Messages in Manuscript Marginalia

by Charlotte Ross Manuscript decoration enhanced the appearance of a text, increasing the value of the book and bringing a sense of status. The most illustriously decorated manuscripts ooze wealth and sophistication, acting as a statement of the owner’s importance. Even within the manuscript itself, these decorations establish a hierarchy amongst the text, identifying the …

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