The Centre is directed by the Keeper of Special Collections and Associate Director in the Bodleian Library, Richard Ovenden. The Department serves as the Centre’s base until it can take physical form in the refurbished New Bodleian Library.
The partner institutions of the Centre for the Study of the Book are: The British Library,
Leiden University Library, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich, and Princeton University.
With the generous support of the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and in cooperation with the Centre’s institutional partners and colleges of the University and with the
McKenzie Trust, the Centre has presented a rich programme of scholarly events and curatorial discussions during 2007-8.
Blockbooks Project:
With the generous support of a private donor, a project has begun to digitize the eight blockbook editions and 42 single-sheet woodcut and metalcut prints described by Prof. Nigel Palmer in the Bodleian’s Catalogue of XVth-century books. Imaging has begun in the Bodleian’s studio and will include the full extent of the material. The website will include additional information to enhance the value of this resource for teaching and learning about the first decades of print in Europe.
(see: www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/csb/blockbooks.htm)
Latin Manuscripts from German lands:
The collection from the Mainz charterhouse consists predominantly of Latin manuscripts comprising a wide variety of texts and grades of production. The manuscripts were briefly described in the 19th century by H. O. Coxe, and more detailed descriptions of a few manuscripts have appeared in various publications; but there has been no all-embracing description in line with modern scholarly standards. The new project, launched in autumn 2007, and generously financed by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, will fill this gap by creating detailed descriptions: of textual content, of illumination, of codicology, (including binding), and of provenance. The work is being carried out by
Dr. Daniela Mairhofer, under the direction of Mr. Richard Ovenden (Keeper of Special Collections) as well as the academic support and guidance of Prof. Nigel Palmer (Professor of Medieval German) and Dr. Martin Kauffmann (Curator of medieval manuscripts).
Lecture:
2 July 2008: Joseph Gwara (U.S. Naval Academy) ‘Four early English printers’.
Professor Gwara described his research into the fonts used by early printers,
suggesting links between them and re-attributions of works.
Symposium: Bruce Chatwin
19 July, 2008
Held in collaboration with New College, Oxford, this was a chance for those attending to hear speakers discussing several aspects of Chatwin’s work and influence. The day ended with question-and-answer session featuring Elizabeth Chatwin and Nicholas Murray.
Speakers included : Jonathan Chatwin, ‘Searching for Symmetry in Bruce Chatwin’s The Nomadic Alternative’; Nicholas Murray, ‘The Wanderer Contained: Human Restlessness and the “Sins of Settlement” in Chatwin’s Writing’; Kevin Volans, ‘Some Japanese Influences on Style and Structure in Bruce Chatwin’s Writing’; Susannah Clapp, ‘With Chatwin’; Kerry Featherstone, ‘“Mobs of People”: The Songlines and Globalization’.
7 October 2008: Professor Charles E. Robinson,
(University of Delaware) ‘The Original Frankenstein: A new text
of the novel by Mary Shelley (with Percy Shelley)’ [in the presence of
the original manuscript] This coincided with publication by the
Bodleian Library of The Original Frankenstein, edited by Prof.
Robinson, presenting the published and manuscript texts of
Frankenstein.
23 November 2008: Peter Wiley ‘John Wiley &
Sons, Inc. as a Global Publisher: An Insider’s Perspective’. Peter
Wiley told the story of his family firm, its origins in 18th-century
New York and its development into the world of digital publishing.
17 and 19 November 2008: Bill Stoneman
(Houghton Library, Harvard) ‘Private collectors and public libraries’ .
9 December 2008: Dr. Elena Ene D-Vasilescu
'The Gospel manuscript of Neamt, Moldavia, AD 1429 [MS. Gr. 122]’ [in
the presence of the original manuscript]
The Centre helped to coordinate masterclasses held in the library’s new Seminar Room (Room 132 in the New Library). Two series ran in Michaelmas Term 2008: the fifth season of Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts masterclasses, convened by Richard Sharpe (History Faculty) and Martin Kauffmann (Bodleian), and the new series of Literary Manuscripts Masterclasses, convened by Kathryn Sutherland (English Faculty) and Chris Fletcher (Bodleian).
Full programme of Medieval and Early Modern masterclasses in Michaelmas 2008:
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/csb/MedievalMssMasterclasses2008.htm
Full programme of Literary Manuscript masterclasses in Michaelmas 2008:
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/csb/LiteraryMssMasterclasses2008.htm
The Centre’s third symposium, Collectors and Collections: music/books/prints/antiquities, was held in partnership with Christ Church College on 20 Nov. 2008 and featured papers on a number of collections held in Oxford institutions or with Oxford connections.
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/csb/CollectorsandCollections.htm
Speakers:
David Berry (Ashmolean Museum) ‘The Collections of Antique Sculpture at Oxford’
John Milsom (Christ Church College) ‘Oxford's Music Collections, c. 1600-1750’
Annette Walton (Linacre College) ‘The Thomas Marshall Collection of Civil War Pamphlets: One Man’s Record of ‘ye late troubles of England’’
Cristina Neagu (Christ Church College) ‘The Books of Thomas Wolsey at Christ Church’
Mark Purcell (National Trust) Sir Richard Ellys (1674-1742) and his Library’
Malcolm Jones (University of Sheffield), ‘In the Lost and Found: Discoveries in Douce's Collection of Early Modern English Prints’
Julian Pooley (The Nichols Archive Project) ‘A Packhorse to Literature: John Nichols (1745-1826), Printer, Antiquary, Biographer and Collector’
Annette Walton (Linacre) and Mike Webb (Bodley) at the Collectors and Collections symposium, Nov. 2008
The day continued the theme of the history of collecting, established in the special lectures by Bill Stoneman (Houghton Library) delivered for the Centre in Oxford the same week, on ‘Private collectors and public libraries’, specifically on the collecting and exhibiting of medieval manuscripts in England and North America during the early 20th century.
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/csb/StonemanLectures2008.htm
Bill Stoneman (Houghton Library, Harvard University) who
lectured on 17 and 19 December on the subject of 20th-century collectors of
medieval manuscripts
The Centre hosted a roundtable of music manuscript cataloguers and curators on 21 Nov. 2008. Representatives of the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music (DIAMM) project, curators from the British Library and Jonathan Wainwright of the Viola da Gamba society shared their methods of cataloguing and discussed standards for description of music manuscripts. Chairing the discussions was John Milsom, cataloguer of music manuscripts at Christ Church College, and the host was Martin Holmes, the Bodleian’s new Music Librarian.
Seminar on the History of the Book, 1450-1830
23 Jan. Professor M.M. Smith (University of Reading):
‘Hand rubrication: the mid-fifteenth-century method of textual articulation’
-- see blog entry from the conveyor
30 Jan. Dr Hans-Jörg Künast (University of Erlangen):
‘Konrad Peutinger’s Library (1466-1547): the history and reconstruction of a Renaissance collection’
6 Feb. Dr Malcolm Walsby (University of St Andrews):
‘Printers, booksellers and the printed word in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Brittany’
13 Feb. Dr Giles Bergel:
‘Oral tradition, print culture and ‘The Wandering Jew’s Chronicle’, 1634-1830’
-- see blog entry from the conveyor
20 Feb. Dr Noel Malcolm:
‘The printing of Hobbes’s Leviathan, a case-study in material bibliography and textual criticism’
-- see blog entry from the conveyor
6 Mar. Dr Cristina Dondi:
‘Book provenance as evidence for economic and social history of the Renaissance’
-- see blog entry from the conveyor
13 Mar. Professor Michael Suarez (Fordham University):
‘Peers’ Pounds and Antiquaries’ Nous: Publishing learned pictures in Restoration and early eighteenth-century England’
5 March 2009 (The 14th annual McKenzie
Lecture)
Professor Jerome McGann (University of Virginia)
‘Philology in a New Key: Information Technology and the Transmission of
Culture’. Presented in partnership with the McKenzie Trust, this was a
timely discussion of the influence – benign and malign -- of digital
media on scholarship, in providing surrogates for older and rare
material and in allowing swift global communication.
Gough Day
Friday 20 March 2009
This day marked the 200th anniversary of the bequest to the Bodleian Library of book and antiquarian collections by Richard Gough (1735-1809). The Seminar Room was open throughout the day, with a display of items from the collection including drawings by William Blake, a volume of sketches by antiquarian researchers of the 18th century of Roman remains in Britain, and a facsimile of the Gough Map, the first route map of Great Britain, dating from the 14th century.
During the day four short lectures on highlights of the collection were delivered by Julian Pooley (Surrey Records Office); Nick Millea (Bodleian Library, Maps Section); Mark Crosby, and Elizabeth Solopova (Bodleian Library, Medieval manuscripts cataloguer).
Professor Rosemary Sweet of the University of Leicester gave the plenary lecture in the Divinity School, on the subject of Richard Gough’s importance in stimulating historical research in 18th century Britain.
A volume from the
Gough Collection containing sketches of Roman remains collected by William Stukeley.
Bodleian Library
Western manuscripts curator Mike Webb (right) showing a manuscript
catalogue of Richard Gough’s collections to a delegate at Gough Day.
Anselm Day
Monday 27 April 2009
Marking 900 years since the death of Anselm,
Archbishop of Canterbury, the Centre hosted an event convened by Richard
Sharpe (History Faculty) that brought together an illustrious group of
scholars and an illustrious group of manuscript volumes (one from
Trinity College, Cambridge, two from Lambeth Palace, and two from the
Bodleian Library). Presentations by Prof. Sharpe, Teresa Webber, Samu
Niskanen, and Michael Gullick combining historical, codicological, and
palaeographical investigations allowed these eleventh- and
twelfth-century witnesses to speak of how the works of a living author
were published in the period of manuscript transmission, and how his
collected works were compiled after his death.
Richard Palmer (Lambeth Palace Library), Richard Sharpe (History Faculty), and Teresa Webber (Trinity College, Cambridge) at Anselm Day in the Seminar Room, Bodleian Library, when the manuscripts MS. Bodley 271, MS. Rawlinson A. 392, Trinity College MS. B. 1. 37 and Lambeth Palace MSS. 59 and 224 were shown.
The Centre’s website now hosts the Register of Book-History Researchers in Oxford, and posts a regular Calendar of book-history and bibliography-related events in Oxford to an expanding e-mail newslist that now numbers over 150 members.
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/csb/csbresearchdirectory.htm
E-mail newslist: interested persons may subscribe to the CSB newslist by sending an email to:
bookcentre-newslist-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk
Papers from the first CSB symposium, on psalters,
(June 2007) have been published in the Bodleian Library Record
(Volume 21, Number I)
Proceedings of the Seminar on History of the Book,
1450-1830, have been noted in the weblog, “The Conveyor”, which is
published by the Centre.
http://theconveyor.wordpress.com/
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Last revised 21 Apr. 2009 by
AF
