Exploring the world of books at Oxford
By Isidor Acton, MSt student in Medieval French (2026). The header image feature MS Douce f.1 This week, we assembled in the Weston Library for the second instalment of our crash-course in palaeography with Dr Laure Miolo, who encouraged us to adopt an all-encompassing approach to reconstructing the history of each book we encounter. We …
by Leena Khabanda, MSt. Modern Languages (2026) What is palaeography? This is the question that stood at the very centre of this seminar. Taken literally, ‘paleo’ means ancient and ‘graphy’ means writing, suggesting that palaeography means the history of writing. However, it soon becomes clear that the discipline extends far beyond the mere deciphering of …
A report by Marina Giraudeau (Université de Lausanne), Research Intern Michaelmas 2025 When I first met Henrike Lähnemann in spring 2024, I would never have believed the possibility of an internship at Oxford University would actually come true. Yet here I am, spending Michaelmas 2025 in a city vibrant with cultural events, academic opportunities and …
On Wednesday 15 October, 5-6.30pm, there was the launch of a new book in the Taylorian, Room 2, where the building itself and its inhabitants are the protagonists: Luisa Hewitt: The Girl Who Lived in the Library, edited by Christina Ostermann on the occasion of the 2025 conference of the Association for German Studies (AGS). Both the …
Workshop on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the collaboration between Christiane Mariane von Ziegler and Johann Sebastian Bach and the performance of BWV 128 with the team from the new edition of the works of Ziegler, https://www.ziegler-edition.de at the University of Oxford, 7–8 May 2025 . Full programme. Organiser: Henrike Lähnemann. In 1725, Johann …
Are you curious about what manuscripts can tell us beyond their texts? Join Digital Scholarship @ Oxford and the Bodleian Libraries for a hands-on workshop using data from manuscript catalogues to explore trends and patterns in medieval manuscript production. You’ll learn: You’ll have the opportunity to work directly with manuscripts from the Bodleian’s collections, learning …
A new DiSc-funded project within the Bodleian Libraries is working to transform the Bodleian’s TEI-encoded medieval manuscript catalogues into accessible tabular formats such as CSV, to support innovative research in manuscript studies and the digital humanities. By making these data more user-friendly, the team hope to foster new research avenues and collaborations. We kindly invite you …
By Edie Young (MSt in Modern Languages) Last week, History of the Book students had the rare opportunity to examine Merton College’s collection of mediaeval astronomical instruments, which were exceptionally out of their cases. Dr Laure Miolo gave a dazzling presentation on mediaeval astrolabes, equatoria, quadrants, and astronomical manuscripts. Laure brought her very own replica …
Of making many books there may be no end, but studying the boundless treasure of manuscripts held in the Weston Library is anything but a weariness of the flesh. That was, at least, the experience of the MML History of the Book students on Wednesday of 2nd week as they ventured up to the Horton …
by Charlie Burrows (MSt. Modern Languages) Over the holidays, this year’s History of the Book class was set the simple but daunting task of choosing a book to present to the class during their first session of Michaelmas Term. Students might have been lured into thinking this to be an easy task when compared to …