Search results for ""Bodleian Library""

Since its foundation in 1602, the Bodleian Library has acquired manuscripts, printed books, maps, music and ephemera in all languages, from all ages and from all corners of the globe. From this huge collection David Vaisey, former Bodley’s Librarian and Keeper of the University Archives, has selected over one hundred treasures that have a story to tell. Many of these treasures are well-loved around the world and include Jane Austen’s manuscript for The Watsons, Shelley’s notebooks, a map of Narnia illustrated by C.S. Lewis and the original Wind in the Willows manuscript. Others are known for their beauty and historical value, such as the thirteenth-century Douce Apocalypse, the Magna Carta and the Gutenberg Bible. Many items hold poignant stories, like the little book hand-written by the eleven-year-old girl who would later become Queen Elizabeth I, given as a New Year present in 1545 to the third of her stepmothers, Katherine Parr. Using a simple and accessible chronological structure, together with detailed illustrations, this bibliophile’s delight, now available in a stunning hardback edition, showcases the beauty and knowledge contained within the Bodleian Library’s renowned collections.

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This richly illustrated guide to the historical buildings of the Bodleian Library not only makes an attractive keepsake but is also packed with fascinating architectural details about one of the oldest libraries in Britain that has been in continuous use since the Middle Ages. Following a short introduction which tells the story of the founding of the Library by Sir Thomas Bodley in 1602, this book offers a succinct guide to the architectural styles, exquisite stone masonry and subsequent renovations of the renowned buildings of the Bodleian, situated in the heart of the University of Oxford. It also describes the involvement of famous architects such as Sir Christopher Wren and Nicholas Hawksmoor in designs and embellishments for these buildings. As well as giving the individual histories of Duke Humfrey’s Library, the Divinity School, Convocation House, the Schools Quadrangle, the Radcliffe Camera and the Clarendon Building, author Geoffrey Tyack also provides a guide to the intriguing statuary and carvings which adorn the buildings, and gives translations of the many Latin inscriptions which mark key moments in the library’s history. The 400-year narrative is brought up to date with a description of the development of the Weston Library, a state-of-the-art renovation of the New Bodleian Library, designed to house the Bodleian’s special collections in the twenty-first century.

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How did a library founded over 400 years ago grow to become the world-renowned institution it is today, home to over thirteen million items? From its foundation by Sir Thomas Bodley in 1598 to the opening of the Weston Library in 2015, this illustrated account shows how the Library’s history was involved with the British monarchy and political events throughout the centuries. The history of the Library is also a history of collectors and collections, and this book traces the story of major donations and purchases, making use of the Library’s own substantial archives to show how it came to house key items such as early confirmations of Magna Carta, Shakespeare’s First Folio and the manuscript of Jane Austen’s earliest writings, among many others. Beautifully illustrated with prints, portraits, manuscripts and archival material, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of libraries and collections.

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William Henry Fox Talbot is celebrated today as one of the English inventors of photography. He made early photographic experiments in the 1830s, released the details of his photogenic drawing process in January 1839, and introduced important innovations to the medium in the 1840s and 1850s. Drawing on archive material in the Bodleian Library, including three albums given by Talbot to his sister, Horatia Feilding, as well as his illustrated books, Sun Pictures in Scotland and The Pencil of Nature, this volume shows how Talbot was continually inventing photography anew. A selection of eighty full-page plates provides a thematic survey of Talbot’s work, reproducing images that document his travels, his home and his family, as well as his intellectual interests, from science to literature to ancient languages. An illustrated introduction places Talbot’s work within the context of a modernising Britain, as well as within his own social and intellectual milieu, and explores how the competing daguerreotype process spurred Talbot to improve his own techniques and seek new functions and uses for paper-based photographs. This evocative selection is testament to Talbot’s constant quest for new photographic advances, offering a compelling window into the archives of an extraordinarily determined and creative man.

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The liturgical psalter is one of the most important medieval Christian books and the most frequently and richly illuminated of medieval liturgical manuscripts. In its simplest form the psalter included 150 psalms, preceded by a calendar and followed by the canticles for the daily offices, the litany of saints and collects. This basic structure was very stable throughout the Middle Ages and is found in an overwhelming majority of psalters from different countries. In spite of the similarity of core content, psalters were very variable in their size, decoration, choice of supplementary texts and style of presentation, reflecting the interests and requirements of a wide range of lay and religious patrons. Latin Liturgical Psalters in the Bodleian Library contains descriptions of 111 psalters from Britain, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy and Spain, ranging in date from the ninth to the sixteenth century. Each entry includes a description of contents, decoration, physical makeup and provenance, together with a bibliography. The entries are supplemented by comparative tables and indices to assist the study of illumination, manuscript presentation and the liturgical use of the psalms. Full colour images of pages from each of the manuscripts are also included, some of which are reproduced here for the first time. This catalogue brings together important information on a stunning selection of manuscripts held in the Bodleian Library, providing an invaluable resource for scholars.

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A FLAME TREE NOTEBOOK. Beautiful and luxurious the journals combine high-quality production with magnificent art. Perfect as a gift, and an essential personal choice for writers, notetakers, travellers, students, poets and diarists. Features a wide range of well-known and modern artists, with new artworks published throughout the year. BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED. The highly crafted covers are printed on foil paper, embossed then foil stamped, complemented by the luxury binding and rose red end-papers. The covers are created by our artists and designers who spend many hours transforming original artwork into gorgeous 3d masterpieces that feel good in the hand, and look wonderful on a desk or table. PRACTICAL, EASY TO USE. Flame Tree Notebooks come with practical features too: a pocket at the back for scraps and receipts; two ribbon markers to help keep track of more than just a to-do list; robust ivory text paper, printed with lines; and when you need to collect other notes or scraps of paper the magnetic side flap keeps everything neat and tidy. ARTIST. The Bodleian Library is one of the oldest libraries in Europe and is the main research library of the University of Oxford. It holds over 13 million printed items and these book spines are just a few examples of the beautiful objects in the Library’s collection. THE FINAL WORD. As William Morris said, "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

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The Bodleian Library is home to innumerable cultural treasures from every corner of the globe, assembled over a period of four hundred years of collecting. Structured around the alphabet, this book contains twenty-six detachable postcards, each featuring a rare or beautiful masterpiece from maths and music to medicine and literature, including Shakespeare’s First Folio, the Gutenberg Bible, sixteenth-century anatomical drawings by Vesalius and the Magna Carta. Presented in a handsome paper binding, these beautiful cards are perfect for you to display, or send to friends.

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The Bodleian Library possesses a significant collection of Latin medieval manuscripts from Germany, most of them acquired and donated by Archbishop Laud in the 1630s. They are precious survivals from the period of the Thirty Years’ War. Their significance arises not just from the number of individual manuscripts but from the fact that they represent substantial portions of the libraries of ecclesiastical houses in Würzburg, Mainz and Eberbach. This book presents a detailed description of the fifty-six manuscripts from Würzburg in the Bodleian, most of them from the cathedral chapter (the Domstift St. Kilian). The majority date from the ninth century, and are extremely important from a textual and palaeographical point of view: they constitute the most important single library of Carolingian manuscripts in the British Isles. Würzburg was one of the leading Anglo-Saxon foundations on the continent of Europe, planting cultural roots which are manifested in almost every aspect of the manuscripts themselves. The catalogue provides authoritative and superbly detailed descriptions of these manuscripts in all their aspects, especially their texts – there are many important early copies of the texts of the Church Fathers – and their scripts, some of whose forms are unique to Würzburg. Detailed attention is also paid to the physical characteristics of the manuscripts, their decoration, binding, and provenance. Each of the manuscripts is illustrated.

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The Bodleian Library is one of the few libraries outside Germany with a substantial number of medieval manuscripts from the German-speaking lands. These manuscripts, most of which were acquired by Archbishop Laud in the 1630s, during the Thirty Years’ War, mainly consist of major groups of codices from ecclesiastical houses in the Rhine-Main area, that is Würzburg, Mainz, and Eberbach. Their potential contribution to the religious and intellectual history of these foundations and to the study of German medieval culture as a whole is immeasurable. This book contains descriptions of over one hundred medieval, manuscripts, mostly Latin, from the Charterhouse St Michael at Mainz, founded in the early 1320s. Dating from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries, they reflect the spirituality and literary interest of the Carthusian order. This is the first major publication on the Mainz Charterhouse manuscript collection. Published in two volumes, it provides authoritative and superbly detailed descriptions, including information about the physical characteristics, decoration, binding, and provenance of the manuscripts. Each manuscript is illustrated.

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Part of an exciting series of sturdy, square-box 1000-piece jigsaw puzzles from Flame Tree, featuring powerful and popular works of art. This new jigsaw will satisfy your need for a challenge, with the beautiful Bodleian Library: High Jinks Bookshelves. This 1000 piece jigsaw is intended for adults and children over13 years. Not suitable for children under 3 years due to small parts. Finished Jigsaw size 735 x 510mm/29 x 20 ins. Now includes an A4 poster for reference.Late 19th- and early 20th- century children's books are the subjects of this print from the Bodleian Libraries. Richly illustrated covers in bright reds, blues and greens adorn the rows of shelves, featuring titles such as Little Miss Sunshine, No Ordinary Girl and A Girl of High Adventure. They are all light-hearted tales with brave female characters that can be found within the Bodleian Library, which is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. During

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Audelay's idiosyncratic devotional tastes, interesting personal life history, and declared political affiliations-loyalty to king, upholder of estates, anxiety over heresy-make him worthy of careful study beside his better-known contemporaries. Of particular note: MS Douce 302 preserves Audelay's own alliterative Marcolf and Solomon, a poem thought to be descended from Langland's Piers Plowman. The Audelay Manuscript also contains unique copies of other alliterative poems of the ornate style seen in Gawain and the Green Knight and The Pistel of Swete Susan. These pieces are Paternoster and Three Dead Kings, both set at the end of the book. Whether or not they are Audelay's own compositions, they seem certain to be his own selections. Audelay also displays a persistent habit of sequencing materials in generic and devotionally affective ways. His is a pious sensibility delicately honed by reverence for the liturgy and by an awe of God. That Audelay's poetry can awaken us to new poetic sensitivities in medieval devotional verse is reason enough to bring him into the ambit of canonical fifteenth-century English poets.

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Taking its title from Howard Carter's famous description of his first glimpse of the treasures of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, this book offers a timeless portrait of highlights representing the range of the Bodleian Library's unique collections.

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Part of a series of exciting and luxurious Flame Tree Sketch Books Combining high-quality production with magnificent fine art, the covers are printed on foil in five colours, embossed, then foil stamped. The thick paper stock makes them perfect for sketching and drawing. These are perfect for personal use and make a dazzling gift. This example features Bodleian Library's High Jinks Bookshelves.Late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century children’s books are the subjects of this print from the Bodleian Libraries. Richly illustrated covers adorn the rows of shelves, featuring titles such as Little Miss Sunshine, No Ordinary Girl and A Girl of High Adventure. The Bodleian Library is one of the oldest libraries in Europe and together the Bodleian Libraries house over 12 million printed items.

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A delightful translation of one of the finest, and most beautiful, examples of a medieval Bestiary. Bestiaries are a particularly characteristic product of medieval England, and give a unique insight into the medieval mind. Richly illuminated and lavishly produced, they were luxury objects for noble families. Their three-fold purpose was to provide a natural history of birds, beasts and fishes, to draw moral examples from animal behaviour (the industrious bee, the stubborn ass), and to reveal a mystical meaning - the phoenix, for instance, as a symbol ofChrist's resurrection. This Bestiary, MS Bodley 764, was produced around the middle of the thirteenth century and is of singular beauty and interest. The lively illustrations have the freedom and naturalistic quality ofthe later Gothic style, and make dazzling use of colour. This book reproduces the 136 illuminations to the same size and in the same place as the original manuscript, fitting the text around them. Richard Barber's translation from the original Latin is a delight to read, capturing both the serious intent of the manuscript and its charm. RICHARD BARBER has written many books on the history of and life in the middle ages, from his Somerset MaughamAward-winning The Knight and Chivalry, by way of biographies of Henry II and the Black Prince, to an anthology of Arthurian literature from England, France and Germany, Arthurian Legends, and an account of the historical Arthur, King Arthur: Hero and Legend.

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The essays in this lavishly illustrated volume shed light on Ethiopia and Eritrea's fascinating past by looking at some of the most remarkable Ethiopic manuscripts kept at the Bodleian Library of Oxford University. In Ethiopia and Eritrea, manuscripts, often beautifully illustrated, have for centuries been the principal means of recording not just the Scriptures but also historical information. Ethiopic manuscripts thus provide a unique window into the life and culture of Ethiopians and Eritreans up to the twenty-first century. The first three essays function as an introduction and examine the history of the collection, the classical Ethiopic (Ge'ez) language, and the production of manuscripts in Ethiopia and Eritrea. The remaining nine contributions—each devoted to one of the Bodleian's manuscripts—explore different facets of the manuscript tradition of Ethiopia and Eritrea. With its unique focus on the Bodleian's collection, this landmark volume presents a comprehensive and accessible overview of the context in which Ethiopic manuscripts were produced and makes the library's treasures more accessible to scholars and the interested public. The collection of Ethiopic manuscripts in the Bodleian Library in Oxford is one of the most significant in Europe. The Bodleian acquired its first Ge'ez manuscript in 1636 and further expanded its collection in 1843, when it acquired twenty-four of the manuscripts that the Scottish explorer James Bruce had brought back from Ethiopia and Eritrea. During the twentieth and twenty-first centuries the Bodleian Library has continued to expand its holdings of Ethiopic manuscripts through new acquisitions. Especially noteworthy are the forty-five manuscripts that the former Oxford University Medical Officer Bent Juel-Jensen bequeathed to the library at his death in 2007. Colour illustrations throughout.

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`The Index of Middle English Prose when completed will be a monumental achievement' REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES Archbishop Laud was Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1629-1641, during which period he donated over twelve thousand manuscripts to the Bodleian Library. Only a small minority of these contain Middle English prose, but they cover a wide spectrum. Religious works include eight copies of the Wycliffite New Testament, one unrecorded by printed authorities, Wycliffite sermons, writings by Rolle and Hilton, Wimbledon and Lavynham, a unique collectionof Kentish dialect sermons, Disce Mori, and copies of many other popular anonymous treatises, some previously unnoted. Among the secular works are The Brut, The Canterbury Tales, Mandeville's Travels, De Re Militari, The Pilgrimage of the Life of the Manhood, writings by Fortescue, one unique, a heraldic treatise and two extensive compilations of medical texts.S. J. OGILVIE-THOMSON was formerly lecturer in language and medieval literature at St Edmund Hall, Oxford.

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A series which is "a monumental achievement" (Review of English Studies). In 1755 Richard Rawlinson bequeathed his vast collection of books and manuscripts to the Bodleian Library. The manuscripts alone numbered over 5,000, and the 167 of these which contain Middle English prose are indexed in this Handlist. These are divided fairly evenly between religious and secular texts: Rawlinson does not seem to have been interested in any particular genre; if a book was old and deemed to be of historical interest it entered his collection, either as an acquisition or a contemporary transcription. Scriptural and devotional writing is represented by copies of the New Testament, three different works by Rolle and three by Hilton, Love's Mirror, a Primer, Sacerdos Parochialis, The Chastising of God's Children, The Mirror of Our Lady, The Mirror to Lewd Men and Women, excerpts from the works of St Catherine of Siena and St Bridget of Sweden, Mirk's Festial, other sermons,Wycliffite treatises, the only English copy known of William Thorpe's Testimony, prayers, several copies of Pore Caitiff, and more. Secular and political writing includes versions of Mandeville's Travels, John Fortescue's On the Governance of England, translations of two works by Alain Chartier, and The English Conquest of Ireland. There is a rich selection of historical prose, with ten Bruts in whole or part, royal genealogies, accounts of royal weddings and of the coronation of Richard II, descriptions of court etiquette, the deposition of Richard II, the challenge for the English throne of Henry IV and his speech of acceptance. Scientific and utilitarian prose is illustrated by Chaucer's Astrolabe, grammatical treatises, alchemical writings by Lull and Ripley, medical treatises, especially urologies, and, in a lighter vein, extracts from the J.B. Treatiseon hunting and country life, as well as separate works on hawking, angling and gardening. The abundance of recipes, medical, culinary and veterinary, singly and in collection, have been treated in this Handlist in particular detail. Sarah Ogilvie-Thomson is a former lecturer in language and medieval literature at St Edmund Hall, Oxford.

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Among the finest manuscripts are a 'Roman de la Rose' with 125 miniatures, a 'Piers Plowman', the 'Ormsby Psalter' and the famous 'Douce Apocalypse'.

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Latest volume in a series which is "a monumental achievement" REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES The Hatton and e Musaeo manuscript collections are important donations given to the Bodleian Library during its formative years in the seventeenth century. The Hatton collection, assembled by Christopher, first Baron Hatton,was largely acquired by the Bodleian Library in 1671. Among its Middle English prose manuscripts are religious texts, including Nicholas Love's Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ, commentaries by Richard Rolle on the psalms and ten commandments, chronicles such as the Brut and an assortment of manuscripts ranging from political prophecies and grammar treatises to compendia of medical recipes. The e Musaeo collection, so called because it was originally an eclectic group of manuscripts stored in the librarian's study, also contains a variety of significant Middle English texts. They range from the religious and devotional: a Wycliffite New Testament, Love's Mirror, and Heinrich Suso's treatise The Seven Points of True Love and Everlasting Wisdom); to the scientific and medicinal: Chaucer's Astrolabe, Henry Daniel's Liber Uricrisiarum; and to the historical, notably the Brut and Mandeville's Travels. Patrick J. Horner, FSC (a De LaSalle Christian Brother) is Professor of English at Manhattan College.

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Noteworthy among these texts are scientific treatises such as Chaucer's 'Astrolabe', works of religious devotion such as Richard Rolle's 'Form of Living' and political tracts including Sir John Fortescue's 'Governance of England'.

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A new edition of the full text of the Brut continuation, previously only known through the damaged version, Lyell 34. In 1856 J.S. Davies edited for the Camden Society the continuation of the Middle English prose Brut, from a manuscript in the Bodleian (Lyell 34), that became known as the Davies Chronicle. Covering the reigns of Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI, it was at once recognised as an important vernacular historical narrative. Unfortunately Lyell 34 is in places badly damaged, and the narrative of the reign of Richard II has survived onlyin fragments. This new edition of what are in fact two Brut continuations makes use of a full text recently discovered in the National Library of Wales (MS 21608), providing a more authoritative version. The narrative covers the periods 1377-1437 and 1440-1461, and includes previously unknown English-language accounts of episodes of the reign of Richard II, such as the Peasants' Revolt. Each continuation is the product of a different political climate, and the introduction explores the narrative and rhetorical structures that lie behind them. As a whole, the edition offers particularly valuable insights into the growth of a highly politicised vernacular historical narrative, and the way in which two medieval compilers sought to represent the history of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. WILLIAM MARX is senior lecturer in medieval literature at the University of Wales, Lampeter

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First of 6 volumes. The project to edit the Hyde Breviary was a considerable one that was to occupy the HBS for a decade. Hyde Abbey hadbeen founded alongside New Minster, Winchester un 965 by St Ethelwold [c. 908-984], Bishop if Winchester, and a former Abbot of Abingdon, with Abingdon Monks. In 1110 the community moved from its cramped premises to Hyde Meadow, just outside the city walls. The breviary MSS edited were most probably written during thre abbacy of Symon de Kanings [1292-1304]. The Hyde Breviary is one of a small number of surviving MS witneses to the form of the English Benedictine breviary, supplemented by what Tolhurst thought was a single surviving volume of a 1528 printed breviary or portiforium of Abingdon. The Hyde relics were here cosen as the most typical and informative. The Rawlinson and Gough MSS were written by different scribes but on virtuallly indistinguishable vellum and with illuminations from the same hand. Here they are collated with survivg witnesses to the English Benedictine breviary of the period. The sixth volume of the set is 'Introduction to the English Monastic Breviaries', volume 80 in the series.

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Second of 6 volumes. The project to edit the Hyde Breviary was a considerable one that was to occupy the HBS for a decade. Hyde Abbey hadbeen founded alongside New Minster, Winchester un 965 by St Ethelwold [c. 908-984], Bishop if Winchester, and a former Abbot of Abingdon, with Abingdon Monks. In 1110 the community moved from its cramped premises to Hyde Meadow, just outside the city walls. The breviary MSS edited were most probably written during thre abbacy of Symon de Kanings [1292-1304]. The Hyde Breviary is one of a small number of surviving MS witneses to the form of the English Benedictine breviary, supplemented by what Tolhurst thought was a single surviving volume of a 1528 printed breviary or portiforium of Abingdon. The Hyde relics were here cosen as the most typical and informative. The Rawlinson and Gough MSS were written by different scribes but on virtuallly indistinguishable vellum and with illuminations from the same hand. Here they are collated with survivg witnesses to the English Benedictine breviary of the period. The sixth volume of the set is 'Introduction to the English Monastic Breviaries', volume 80 in the series.

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Fourth of 6 volumes. The project to edit the Hyde Breviary was a considerable one that was to occupy the HBS for a decade. Hyde Abbey hadbeen founded alongside New Minster, Winchester un 965 by St Ethelwold [c. 908-984], Bishop if Winchester, and a former Abbot of Abingdon, with Abingdon Monks. In 1110 the community moved from its cramped premises to Hyde Meadow, just outside the city walls. The breviary MSS edited were most probably written during thre abbacy of Symon de Kanings [1292-1304]. The Hyde Breviary is one of a small number of surviving MS witneses to the form of the English Benedictine breviary, supplemented by what Tolhurst thought was a single surviving volume of a 1528 printed breviary or portiforium of Abingdon. The Hyde relics were here cosen as the most typical and informative. The Rawlinson and Gough MSS were written by different scribes but on virtuallly indistinguishable vellum and with illuminations from the same hand. Here they are collated with survivg witnesses to the English Benedictine breviary of the period. The sixth volume of the set is 'Introduction to the English Monastic Breviaries', volume 80 in the series.

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Fifth of 6 volumes.. The project to edit the Hyde Breviary was a considerable one that was to occupy the HBS for a decade. Hyde Abbey hadbeen founded alongside New Minster, Winchester un 965 by St Ethelwold [c. 908-984], Bishop if Winchester, and a former Abbot of Abingdon, with Abingdon Monks. In 1110 the community moved from its cramped premises to Hyde Meadow, just outside the city walls. The breviary MSS edited were most probably written during thre abbacy of Symon de Kanings [1292-1304]. The Hyde Breviary is one of a small number of surviving MS witneses to the form of the English Benedictine breviary, supplemented by what Tolhurst thought was a single surviving volume of a 1528 printed breviary or portiforium of Abingdon. The Hyde relics were here cosen as the most typical and informative. The Rawlinson and Gough MSS were written by different scribes but on virtuallly indistinguishable vellum and with illuminations from the same hand. Here they are collated with survivg witnesses to the English Benedictine breviary of the period. The final volume of the set is 'Introduction to the English Monastic Breviaries', volume 80 in the series.

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In 1934 Sir Giles Gilbert Scott began work on designs for a substantial new library building opposite the Old Bodleian Library site in Broad Street, Oxford in order to provide much-needed space for the growing numbers of books housed in the library and the number of readers using them. Opened in 1946 (having been delayed by the Second World War), for seventy years the New Bodleian served the academic community and readers visiting Oxford, housing 3.5 million items. Scott’s innovative designs meant that the New Bodleian became a Grade II-listed building in 2003. In 2009, thanks to a generous bequest from the Garfield Weston Foundation, plans got underway for a complete refurbishment of the building to meet the needs of twenty-first-century research and the Bodleian’s expanding collections. The architects Wilkinson Eyre were appointed to develop the project adapting the Grade II listed building for its new use as a special collections library while keeping the façade intact. Their brief was to redesign reading rooms for the consultation of rare books, manuscripts, archives, music and maps, provide new research facilities (including support for digital scholarship), new teaching facilities, improved conservation laboratories, state-of-the-art storage for Bodleian Libraries' valuable special collections and enhanced public access through a new entrance hall and exhibition space. This book tells the story of how the vision for the Weston Library was realized. Like the project itself, it represents a collaboration between clients and consultants as they place the project in context, describing in detail the many architectural, academic, curatorial and heritage issues addressed throughout the process, and the challenges of meeting the needs of an internationally renowned, four-hundred-year-old institution in the twenty-first century.

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Invented to entertain Alice Liddell on boat-trips down the river Thames in Oxford, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has become one of the most famous and influential works of children’s literature of all time. It is hard to imagine Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland without picturing the illustrations made by Sir John Tenniel for the first edition of the story. Sir John Tenniel (1820–1914) was the principal satirical cartoonist for Punch magazine for over fifty years and much in demand as an illustrator in Victorian Britain. At Lewis Carroll’s request, he illustrated the first edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, published by Macmillan in 1865. In 1889, he made coloured versions of the drawings for The Nursery Alice, an adaptation of the story created especially for 0-5 year-olds. Ten years later, Gertrude E. Thompson modified Tenniel’s illustrations for a card entitled ‘The New and Diverting Game of Alice in Wonderland’. These unforgettable illustrations, including the Mad Hatter, the Mock Turtle and the Queen of Hearts, among many others, are featured in these special journals. Beautifully produced in hardback with lined paper, coloured page edges, ribbon marker and printed endpapers, this Alice in Wonderland journal is the perfect gift for Wonderland fans.

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Invented to entertain Alice Liddell on boat-trips down the river Thames in Oxford, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has become one of the most famous and influential works of children’s literature of all time. It is hard to imagine Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland without picturing the illustrations made by Sir John Tenniel for the first edition of the story. Sir John Tenniel (1820–1914) was the principal satirical cartoonist for Punch magazine for over fifty years and much in demand as an illustrator in Victorian Britain. At Lewis Carroll’s request, he illustrated the first edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, published by Macmillan in 1865. In 1889, he made coloured versions of the drawings for The Nursery Alice, an adaptation of the story created especially for 0-5 year-olds. Ten years later, Gertrude E. Thompson modified Tenniel’s illustrations for a card entitled ‘The New and Diverting Game of Alice in Wonderland’. These unforgettable illustrations, including the Mad Hatter, the Mock Turtle and the Queen of Hearts, among many others, are featured in these special journals. Beautifully produced in hardback with lined paper, coloured page edges, ribbon marker and printed endpapers, this Alice in Wonderland journal is the perfect gift for Wonderland fans.

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'Much reading is like much eating, wholly useless without digestion.' – R. South 'If I had read as much as other men, I should have been as ignorant as they.' – T. Hobbes 'Choose an author as you choose a friend.' – W. Dillon ‘A blessed companion is a book – a book that, fitly chosen, is a life-long friend,’ wrote Douglas William Jerrold, over a hundred years ago. Major writers through the centuries have turned their minds to the subject of books, often with humour, sometimes with exasperation, always with affection. Between the covers of this rich selection are excerpts from the poetry of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Milton and Donne, among many others. Novelists such as Austen, Dickens, Eliot and Swift have often paused in their fiction to extol the virtues of libraries, books and ‘the pleasant smell of paper freshly pressed’, or to satirize them mercilessly. Interspersed with these are the meditations of the great diarists and essayists of past centuries – Johnson, Boswell, Macaulay, Ruskin and Montaigne – writing in letters, journals and lectures on the vital importance of ‘bright books’ to the intellectual life of the nation. Can books corrupt? How do badly written books help the serious reader? How rife is plagiarism? Does reading excessively damage your eyesight? Which is the best-loved library? These questions and many more are vigorously discussed in this essential anthology for bibliophiles.

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How should a motorist converse with the police? Should you switch off your headlights when another car approaches? What parts of the engine can you fix with a sheet of emery paper, insulating tape and copper wire? The 1920s heralded the age of motoring with the arrival of the ‘affordable’ Austin Seven and the increasing popularity of Morris Motors in Britain. Yet the first edition of the Highway Code would not appear for another decade and the rules of the road were rudimentary to say the least. This charming and practical guide provides enduring advice to novice motorists on how to cope with such hazards as skidding, headlight dazzle and sheep on the road, much of which is still instructive on today’s car journeys. Many of the author’s observations will strike a chord with the modern driver: ‘When driving, look on all other drivers as fools...’. Others evoke the style and etiquette of a glamorous bygone era: ‘A good chauffeur... will save his employer a great deal of expense’; ‘an average speed of twenty miles per hour... allows you and your passengers to see something of the countryside’. Covering such topics as unscrupulous second-hand car dealers, women drivers and ‘dashboard delights’, this little book provides all the information needed to get maximum enjoyment out of the open road, complete with leisurely picnics and a little light motor-car maintenance.

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Nearly 1 million American soldiers passed through Australia between 1942 and 1945 as part of America’s strategy to re-capture the Philippines and defeat Japan. They encountered a country full of reassuring similarities and strange differences. Here was a land of wide-open spaces, roughly the same size as the US, with a can-do, pioneering spirit, a history of swift development; a land of ‘funny animals’ and peculiar vowel sounds. But who were the Australians and how were Americans to behave in their midst? They were, of course, ‘an outdoors sort of people, breezy and very democratic’, with a gargantuan appetite for swearing. In the inimitable prose of the soldier’s pocket book series, this pithy guide captures the essence of Australia and its people, their humour, vocabulary; their attitude to the Yanks, the British, the War and the world with remarkable economy and clarity. It also manages to squeeze in a précis of Australian history, politics, economics, sports, and musical tradition, as well as colourful lexicon of national slang, which defines for example sheila as ‘a babe’, cliner as ‘another babe’, and sninny as ‘a third babe’. Like any self-respecting guide to Australian culture, it contains the text of Waltzing Matilda, together with a few bon mots about its cultural significance, particularly in wartime. Unlike cricket, which is a polite game, Australian Rules Football creates a desire on the part of the crowd to tear someone apart, usually the referee. The Australian has few equals in the world at swearing ...the commonest swear words are bastard (pronounced “barstud”), “bugger,” and “bloody,” and the Australians have a genius for using the latter nearly every other word.

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Johann Wilhelm Weinmann was an apothecary who established a botanic garden in Regensburg and set about producing a highly detailed catalogue of plants and their uses, with illustrations commissioned from some of the finest engravers of the time. The resulting Phytanthoza Iconographia is an immense work, contained within several volumes published between 1737 and 1745. It features no fewer than 1,025 beautiful colour plates – including early examples of colour mezzotint – of all manner of fruit and vegetables. Three of the exquisite plates are reproduced in this lovely set of A5 softback notebooks: the perfect gift for gardeners and connoisseurs of botanical illustration.

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The Bodleian Library's exciting new range of journals showcases gorgeous illustrations from our collections on the covers. Designed to be easily portable or to fit in a small bag, each hard cover journal is 207 x 140mm, with 160 lined pages of high quality paper. Every journal is finished with a sturdy elastic band closure, ribbon marker and elastic pen holder. An expanding wallet for storing papers is also included on the inside back cover. Produced to a high standard with careful attention to finishing and details, they make the perfect gift for all writers and stationery lovers.

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'Show me another pleasure like dinner which comes every day and lasts an hour.' – Talleyrand 'He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.' – Jonathan Swift ‘There is no love sincerer than the love of food’ wrote George Bernard Shaw in 1903. Poets, novelists, chefs and gourmands before and after him would seem to agree. Collected in this anthology is a mouth-watering selection of excerpts on the subject of eating, drinking, cooking and serving food, guaranteed to whet every reader’s appetite. Themed sections group together poetry and prose on grapes and bottles, the ideal cuisine, hangover cures and vivid vignettes of dinner-party behaviour, including Mrs Gaskell eating peas with a knife. There are stories about food fit for kings, a duchess’s ‘rumblings abdominal’, fine dining, eating abroad, cooking at home and gastronomic excesses. A section on food and travel features Edmund Hillary’s meal at the summit of Everest, Ernest Shackleton’s dish of penguin in the Antarctic and Joshua Slocum on the unfortunate effects of cheese and plums while sailing solo around the world. Also on the menu are limericks, short-tempered cooks, recipes, fantasy food, special feasts, iron rations, tips on opening oysters and the uses and abuses of coffee. Featuring writers as diverse as Brillat-Savarin, Edward Lear, John Keats, Collette, Charles Dickens, Maria Edgeworth and Marcel Proust and interspersed with a generous helping of cartoons, this is a perfect gift for foodies, chefs, picnickers and epicurean explorers.

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‘Without a revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement.’ Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik Revolution and founder of the USSR, was profoundly aware of the power of words. As a zealous orator and prolific writer, he used his words to launch a soaring critique of imperialist society and to theorize the development of the world’s first socialist state. Much of his writing was translated into English in order to further the Socialist cause. This book is a compilation of some of Lenin’s most famous sayings, taken from speeches, tracts, letters and recorded conversations. They expose his views on topics ranging from democracy to terrorism, from religion to Stalin’s untrustworthiness and from education to music. Accompanied by a range of arresting images, including contemporary propaganda posters, photographs, portraits, illustrations and Soviet art, these aphoristic proclamations offer an insight into the atmosphere of pre- and post-Revolutionary Russia and the mind of one of the twentieth century’s most defining political figures.

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Which is the smallest book in the Bodleian Library? Who complained when their secret pen name was revealed in the library’s catalogue? How many miles of shelving are there in the Book Storage Facility? What is the story behind the library’s refusal to lend a book to King Charles I? And, what is fasciculing? The answers to these questions and many more can be found inside this intriguing miscellaneous collection of curious facts and stories about the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Home to more than 12 million books and a vast array of treasures including the Gutenberg bible, J.R.R. Tolkien’s hand-painted watercolours for 'The Hobbit', Shakespeare’s First Folio and four thirteenth-century copies of Magna Carta, the Bodleian Library is one of the most magnificent libraries in the world with a fascinating history. 'Bodleianalia' delights in uncovering some of the lesser known facts about Britain’s oldest university library. Through a combination of lists, statistics, and bitesize nuggets of information, it reveals many of the quirks of fate, eccentric characters, and remarkable events which have contributed to the making of this renowned institution. The perfect book for trivia-lovers and bibliophiles, it also offers readers a behind-the-scenes peek into the complex workings of a modern, world-class library in the twenty-first century.

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This lavishly illustrated book showcases the highlights of the Tolkien archives held at the Bodleian Library. From J.R.R. Tolkien’s childhood in the Midlands and his experience of the First World War to his studies at school and university; his exquisite illustrations for The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and his creation of intricate and beautiful maps showing the topography of Middle-earth – the land he invented – this stunning book is a perfect introduction to Tolkien’s creative imagination, giving a unique insight into the life of this extraordinary writer, artist and scholar.

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To celebrate the acquisition of the Tom Phillips archive, the Bodleian Library has asked the artist to assemble and design a series of books drawing on his themed collection of over 50,000 photographic postcards. These encompass the first half of the twentieth century, a period in which, thanks to the ever cheaper medium of photography, ‘ordinary’ people could afford to own their portraits. Women in Hats explores the remarkable range in the world of millinery from outrageous Edwardian creations to the inventive austerities of the Second World War. This book contains 200 images chosen with the eye of a leading artist from a visually rich vein of social history. Their covers will also feature a thematically linked painting, especially created for each title, from Tom Phillips’ signature work, A Humument.

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This richly illustrated book tells the story of cultural exchange between the people of the Low Countries and England in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, and reveals how Anglo-Dutch connections changed the literary landscape on both sides of the North Sea. Ranging from the Norman Conquest of 1066 to the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688, it examines how Dutch-speaking immigrants transformed English culture, and it uncovers the lasting impact of contacts and collaborations between Dutch and English speakers on historical writing, map-making, manuscript production and early printing. The literary heritage of Anglo-Dutch relations is explored and lavishly illustrated through the unique collection of manuscripts, early prints, maps and other treasures from the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The book sheds new light on the literature and art of a pivotal period in European history.

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Throughout the ages, every culture has created myths and legends which recount the great deeds of its heroes and their epic struggles with larger-than-life forces. Designer Bookbinders 3rd International Competition, held at the Bodleian Library in 2017, brings to life this theme though the inventive structures and creative designs of bookbinders worldwide. This beautifully designed catalogue is not only a celebration of the winning entries, but also a lavishly illustrated record of all the entrants from a broad range of countries. Following on from Bound for Success in 2009, and Prize Volumes in 2013, Heroic Works is the third volume in the Bodleian Library’s series of publications which have documented these prestigious competitions. In this book, great classics of world literature, alongside modern texts, are given a new look through the consummate skills, seductive materials, and boundless inventiveness of the craft of bookbinding which is thriving in the world today.

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Daniel Meadows is a pioneer of contemporary British documentary practice. His photographs and audio recordings, made over forty-five years, capture the life of England's ‘great ordinary’. Challenging the status quo by working collaboratively, he has fashioned from his many encounters a nation's story both magical and familiar. This book includes important work from Meadows’ ground-breaking projects, drawing on the archives now held at the Bodleian Library. Fiercely independent, Meadows devised many of his creative processes: he ran a free portrait studio in Manchester's Moss Side in 1972, then travelled 10,000 miles making a national portrait from his converted double-decker the Free Photographic Omnibus, a project he revisited a quarter of a century later. At the turn of the millennium he adopted new ‘kitchen table’ technologies to make digital stories: ‘multimedia sonnets from the people’, as he called them. He sometimes returned to those he had photographed, listening for how things were and how they had changed. Through their unique voices he finds a moving and insightful commentary on life in Britain. Then and now. Now and then.

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Oxford’s university buildings are world-famous. Over eight centuries, starting in the twelfth century, the University – the third oldest in Europe – gradually occupied a substantial portion of the city, creating in the process a unique townscape containing the Bodleian Library, the Sheldonian Theatre and the Radcliffe Camera. This book tells the story of the growth of the forum universitatis – as the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor called it – and relates it to the broader history of the University and the city. Based on up-to-date scholarship, and drawing upon the author’s own research into Oxford’s architectural history and the work of Christopher Wren, Nicholas Hawksmoor, James Gibbs and Giles Gilbert Scott, each of the eight chapters focuses on the gestation, creation and subsequent history of a single building, or pair of buildings, relating them to developments in the University’s intellectual and institutional life, and to broader themes in architectural and urban history. Accessible and well-illustrated with plans, archival prints and specially commissioned photography, this book will appeal to anyone who wishes to understand and enjoy Oxford’s matchless architectural heritage.

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Representing four centuries of collecting and 1,000 years of Jewish history, this book brings together extraordinary Hebrew manuscripts and rare books from the Bodleian Library and Oxford colleges. Highlights of the collections include a fragment of Maimonides’ autograph draft of the 'Mishneh Torah'; the earliest dated fragment of the Talmud, exquisitely illuminated manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible; stunning festival prayerbooks and one of the oldest surviving Jewish seals in England. Lavishly illustrated essays by experts in the field bring to life the outstanding works contained in the collections, as well as the personalities and diverse motivations of their original collectors, who include Archbishop William Laud, John Selden, Edward Pococke, Robert Huntington, Matteo Canonici, Benjamin Kennicott and Rabbi David Oppenheim. Saved for posterity by religious scholarship, intellectual rivalry and political ambition, these extraordinary collections also bear witness to the consumption and circulation of knowledge across the centuries, forming a social and cultural history of objects moved across borders, from person to person. Together, they offer a fascinating journey through Jewish intellectual and social history from the tenth century onwards.

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Early manuscripts in the English language include religious works, plays, romances, poetry and songs, as well as charms, notebooks, science and medieval medicine. How did scribes choose to arrange the words and images on the page in each manuscript? How did they preserve, clarify and illustrate writing in English? What visual guides were given to early readers of English in how to understand or use their books? 'Designing English' is an overview of eight centuries of graphic design in manuscripts and inscriptions from the Anglo-Saxon to the early Tudor periods. Working beyond the traditions established for Latin, scribes of English needed to be more inventive, so that each book was an opportunity for redesigning. 'Designing English' focuses on the craft, agency and intentions of scribes, painters and engravers in the practical processes of making pages and artefacts. It weighs up the balance of ingenuity and copying, practicality and imagination in their work. It surveys bilingual books, format, ordinatio, decoration and reading aloud, as well as inscriptions on objects, monuments and buildings. With over ninety illustrations, drawn especially from the holdings of the Bodleian Library in Old English and Middle English, 'Designing English' gives a comprehensive overview of English books and other material texts across the Middle Ages.

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A unique blend of graphic design, bold art or photography and cunning psychology, election posters are an unsung art form, stretching back to the dawn of the twentieth century. Exploiting the Conservative Party Archive held at the Bodleian Library which contains over 700 posters, this book charts the evolution of the Conservatives’ election posters. Divided into chapters along political periods, the book highlights the changing fashions in and attitudes to advertising, political ideology, slogans, combativeness and above all, propriety. Each chapter includes a brief introduction discussing the major themes of the period as well as captions explaining specific issues related to the individual posters. Lavishly illustrated, 'Dole Queues to Demons' gives a fascinating insight into the issues and strategies of the Conservative Party throughout the twentieth century, and up to the present day. A foreword by advertising guru Maurice Saatchi discusses the posters from a communication and design perspective. This book will fascinate anyone interested in social and political history and modern communications. Published at a time when the advent of new media threatens to herald the end of traditional forms of mass communication, this book takes a timely retrospective look at this enduring feature of the British electoral landscape.

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Rachel Owen’s hauntingly beautiful illustrations for Dante’s Inferno take a radically new approach to representing the world of Dante’s famous poem. The images combine the artist’s deep cultural and historical understanding of 'The Divine Comedy' and its artistic legacy with her unique talent for collage and printmaking. These illustrations, casting the viewer as a first-person pilgrim through the underworld, prompt us to rethink Dante’s poem through their novel perspective and visual language. Owen’s work, held in the Bodleian Library and published here for the first time, illustrates the complete cycle of thirty-four cantos of the Inferno with one image per canto. The illustrations are accompanied by essays contextualising Owen’s work and supplemented by six illustrations intended for the unfinished Purgatorio series. Fiona Whitehouse provides details of the techniques employed by the artist, Peter Hainsworth situates Owen’s work in the field of modern Dante illustration and David Bowe offers a commentary on the illustrations as gateways to Dante’s poem. Jamie McKendrick and Bernard O’Donoghue’s translations of episodes from the 'Inferno' provide complementary artistic interpretations of Dante’s poem, while reflections from colleagues and friends commemorate Owen’s life and work as an artist, scholar and teacher. This stunning collection is an important contribution to both Dante scholarship and illustration.

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