Exploring the world of books at Oxford
By the end of Michaelmas term, I came across a volume at the Weston Library on which several villancico chapbooks were bound. The volume itself had no title, no index, no author. There was nothing that could point to its origin but a shelfmark – Arch. Sigma III 70 – belonging to an enigmatic collection. …
After an eventful life as a chronicler, translator, and lexicographer in the turbulent world of 15th Century Spain, Alfonso de Palencia settled down in Seville to produce what would be one of his final published works. Born in 1423, he spent ten years of his youth studying in Italy alongside some of the most prominent …
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 …