Exploring the world of books at Oxford
In the first week of the History of the Book methods option, students and researchers gathered in the Taylor Institute Library to explore items from the special collections that challenge the very notion of the ‘book’. From the curious collection of printed and handwritten manuscript pages rebound in Arch.Fol.It.1478(1) where Petrarch’s ‘sonetti et cançone’ are …
The videocast series Parchment and Paper is dedicated to the treasures of the college library at Queen’s. In episode 3 of series 3, Dr Conor O’Brien (Associate Professor in the Early Mediaeval History of the British Isles and North Atlantic World, and Tutorial Fellow in History at Queen’s: https://www.queens.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-conor-o%E2%80%99brien) joins Matthew Shaw (College Librarian at Queen’s: https://www.queens.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-gabriele-rota) …
In celebration of the first three years of the Centre for Manuscript and Text Cultures (CMTC) and the launch of the centre’s open-access journal with its inaugural issue, Monumentalization, there will be a CMTC festival in Trinity Term 2022. Public events include the formal launch of the journal Manuscript and Text Cultures (Wednesday 11th May), …
While book production increased during the long fifteenth century, older books were still used and efforts were made to sustain them. Hannah Ryley will explore a range of late medieval manuscript re-uses in England, focusing on the practices and processes of parchment production, repair, recycling and sharing. Thursday 10 February 2022 at 5:30 p.m. Balliol …
Versuche zur mittelalterlichen Herstellungstechnik und Oberflächenbehandlung von Pergament Guest blog post by Anna Vogel, Master Student at the University of Freiburg in the MARS degree. Anna Vogel studiert Mittelalter- und Renaissancestudien an der Universität Freiburg. Ihr Hauptinteressensgebiet sind die handwerklichen Techniken der historischen Buchherstellung. Im August und September 2021 bekam sie die Möglichkeit, gemeinsam mit …
“What on earth is that?!” I thought to myself when we were presented with our latest Code-a-thon challenge on Monday morning. As you may well be able to see from the header image, the test before us was a difficult one: columns, colours, glosses, handwriting and marginalia (that even had its own marginalia!). How could …
by Henrike Lähnemann On 4 August 2021, Mark Butler, an Oxford medical researcher working in the Radcliffe Department of Medicine , entered the Sobell House Charity Shop on Little Clarendon Street where a batch of framed leaves, prints and other miscellaneous donations had been placed at the back of the shop. Recently, while talking about my teaching of …
A palaeographic analysis of Bodleian Library MS. Germ. e. 5. by Marlene Schilling Report on a History of the Book project In the academic year 2020/21, six brave Germanists took up the challenge of a special group project: editing and understanding the newly digitised manuscript Bodleian Library MS. Germ. e. 5. (part of the Polonsky …
I am sat in the Weston Library, currently the only student in the rare books room, looking for the first time at MS. Canon. Ital. 108 in person. I have stared at, analysed, and laboured over scans of its pages from afar for the last few months. This term I am back in Oxford having …
Arnold von Harff’s travelogue travels to Oxford by Aysha Strachan The year is 1813. The Bodleian library acquires what is later to be known as MS Bodley 972 as part of a collection of late medieval travelogues which tell of the encounters of knights on their pilgrimage to the Holy Land. One of the most …