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. In 2016 I published a biography of Martin Luther which had taken me twelve years to write. I had worked away pretty much on my own, and had not become …
From research to craft: printing Luther’s theses and teaching letterpress
This article was reposted from the Blog The Conveyor in March 2020 at the Taylor Reformation blog which has now become part of the Taylor Editions website with a dedicated Reformation Pamphlets series. The letterpress workshop housed at the Bodleian Library has long been used for experimentation and practical teaching to academic learners at all levels. It’s …
Presenting the History of the Book Projects
Half-way through Hilary term, the History of the Book students presented their work-in-progress. In chronological order: Vincent Leung: A Catalogue Description of MS. Canon. Ital. 10 Maximilian Krümpelmann: 1520 – Luther’s Year of Freedom. A Taylorian Exhibition Caroline Godard: Jean Poldo d’Albenas and Guillaume Rouillé, Discours historial de l’antique et illustre cité de Nismes (1560) …
In Pursuit of An Apostle: Comenius, the Janua, and an Unicum
By Lena Zlock Introduction “I cry: sensation!” With these words began our search for what might be an ‘unicum’: the only edition of its kind of Johann Amos Comenius’ Janua linguarum reserata. Ulrich Schäfer, Bibliographischer Berater at the Deutsche Comenius-Gesellschaft first contacted Helen Buchanan of the Bodleian Libraries to enquire about the 1662 copy of …
Tracing global connections in a 1730 festival book commemorating the Augsburg Confession
This term‘s focus is the research and writing of a project related to our course Palaeography, History of the Book and Digital Humanities. Having previously studied nineteenth-century carnival illustrations, I wanted to continue with the theme of festivals to trace identity formation through visual dialogue. Through SOLO’s, the Search Oxford Library Online Catalogue, tag listing eighteenth-century festival …
Launching the History of the Book Blog
At the last session of the History of the Book class for Michaelmas Term, the group officially launched this blog. Watch the short video-clip with reflections on what “studying History of the Book” means for all of us. …and – as a Christmas special – a DIY video on how to make your own (mock-)medieval …
A first-hand encounter with MS. Don. e. 248
By Luise Morawetz After learning about different methods and difficulties of conservation (visit the Masterclass on Materiality post to read more about this part of the session), we got the chance to look at some manuscripts and to learn about the specifics of their materiality. What was especially intriguing for me was seeing the manuscript …
The road goes ever on and on
‘15cBooktrade’ and what we can learn from it The printed book now lying in front of me – an edition of Otto von Passau’s ‘Die vierundczweinczig Altê. od’ d’ guldin tron’ from the year 1480 – has travelled a long way before arriving here, on a wooden table in Lecture Room 2 of the Taylor …
Masterclass on Materiality
By Godelinde Gertrude Perk Featured image courtesy of the University of Oxford Development Office This masterclass focused on the materiality of medieval manuscripts, that is, medieval manuscripts as material objects, and their conservation. It explored how manuscripts were made in the Middle Ages and how modern conservators (for instance in the Bodleian Conservation Studio) conserve …