Search results for ""Bodleian Library""

Which are the oldest museums in the world? What is a cabinet of curiosities? Who haunts Hampton Court? What is on the FBI’s list of stolen art? 'A Museum Miscellany' celebrates the intriguing world of galleries and museums, from national institutions such as the Musée du Louvre, the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art to niche collections such as the Lawnmower Museum and the Museum of Barbed Wire. Here you will find a cornucopia of museum-related facts, statistics and lists, covering everything from museum ghosts, dangerous museum objects and conservation beetles to treasure troves, museum heists and the Museum of London’s fatberg. Bursting with quirky facts, intriguing statistics and legendary curators, this is the perfect gift for all those who love to visit museums and galleries.

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The much-loved tales from 'The Thousand and One Nights' first appeared in English translation in the early nineteenth century. The popularity of these ancient and beguiling tales set against the backdrop of Baghdad, a city of wealth and peace, stoked the widespread enthusiasm for and scholarly interest in eastern arts and culture, which had been a dominant fashion in Europe for almost a century. Four of the most well-known tales, translated by Laurence Housman, are reproduced in this collector’s edition: 'Sindbad the Sailor', 'Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp', 'The Story of the Three Calenders' and 'The Sleeper Awakened'. Each is illustrated with exquisite watercolours by the renowned artist Edmund Dulac. The sumptuous illustrations reproduced here capture the beauty and timeless quality of these alluring stories, made at the zenith of early twentieth-century book illustration.

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What makes a perfect husband? In this tongue-in-cheek guide, illustrated by Heath Robinson’s inimitable cartoons and contraptions, there are many charmingly old-fashioned tips for how to succeed in almost all aspects of married life. First published in 1937, this delightful book gives an insight into how the roles of both wife and husband were viewed at the time and pokes gentle fun at them both. The perfect husband presses his own trousers; he can tend the lawn and entertain the baby simultaneously by means of two simple attachments to the garden roller; he can peel onions behind his back, with the help of a mirror, and thus avoid tears; he can make a vacuum cleaner and he even has a device to help him climb the stairs silently after a late night out with the boys. When offered the choice of a glass of milk or a Manhattan, he will choose the former. With chapters on courtship and proposal, the wedding, early married life, bringing up children, sports and hobbies, domestic difficulties and middle age, this book makes a highly amusing gift for those who are considering tying the knot or wish to celebrate wedded bliss.

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Oxford held a special place in Evelyn Waugh’s imagination. So formative were his Oxford years that the city never left him, appearing again and again in his novels in various forms. This book explores in rich visual detail the abiding importance of Oxford as both location and experience in his literary and visual works. Drawing on specially commissioned illustrations and previously unpublished photographic material, it provides a critically robust assessment of Waugh’s engagement with Oxford over the course of his literary career. Following a brief overview of Waugh’s life and work, subsequent chapters look at the prose and graphic art Waugh produced as an undergraduate together with Oxford’s portrayal in Brideshead Revisited and A Little Learning as well as broader conceptual concerns of religion, sexuality and idealised time. A specially commissioned, hand-drawn trail around Evelyn Waugh’s Oxford guides the reader around the city Waugh knew and loved through locations such as the Botanic Garden, the Oxford Union and The Chequers. A unique literary biography, this book brings to life Waugh’s Oxford, exploring the lasting impression it made on one of the most accomplished literary craftsmen of the twentieth century.

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Ever wondered how ink is made? Or what is the bestselling book of all time? Or which are the oldest known books in the world? Highbrow to lowbrow, all aspects of the book are celebrated and explored in 'The Book Lovers’ Miscellany'. From a list of unfinished novels, a short history of the comic, the story behind Mills and Boon and an entry on books printed with mistakes, to a guide to the colours of Penguin paperback jackets and a list of the most influential academic books of all time. Between these pages you will discover the history of paper, binding, printing and dust jackets; which books have faced bans; which are the longest established literary families; and which bestsellers were initially rejected. You can explore the output of the most prolific writers and marvel at the youth of the youngest published authors; learn which natural pigments were used to decorate a medieval bible; and what animal is needed for the making of vellum. The ideal gift for every bibliophile, 'The Book Lovers’ Miscellany' is full of fun facts, potted histories and curious lists, perfect for dipping into and sharing.

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How were the first fonts made? Who invented italics? When did we work out how to print in colour? Many of the standard features of printed books were designed by pioneering typographers and printers in the latter half of the fifteenth century. Although Johannes Gutenberg is credited with printing the first books in Europe with moveable type, at the height of the Renaissance many different European printers and publishers found innovative solutions to replicate the appearance of manuscript books in print and improve on them. The illustrated examples in Typographic Firsts originate in those early decades, bringing into focus the influences and innovations that shaped the printed book and established a Western typographic canon. From the practical challenges of polychromatic printing or printing music staves and notes to the techniques for illustrating books with woodcuts, producing books for children and the design of the first fonts, these stories chart the invention of the printed book, the world’s first means of mass communication. Also covering title pages, maps, printing in gold and printing in colour, this book shows how a mixture of happenstance and brilliant technological innovation came together to form the typographic and design conventions of the book.

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Oxford Botanic Garden is the oldest surviving botanic garden in Britain and has occupied its site in central Oxford since 1621. Conceived as a place to grow medicinal plants, born in the turmoil of civil war and nurtured during the restoration of the monarchy, the garden has, unsurprisingly, a curious past. By tracing the work and priorities of each of the garden’s keepers, this book explores its importance as one of the world's oldest scientific plant collections. It tells the story of the planting of the garden by its first keeper, Jacob Bobart, and his son, together with how they changed the garden to suit their own needs. The story develops during the eighteenth century as the garden grew exotic plants under glass and acquired a fine succulent collection but then experienced a downturn under the stewardship of the eccentric Professor Humphrey Sibthorp (famous for giving just one lecture in thirty-seven years). Finally, the narrative throws light on the partnership of gardener William Baxter and academic Charles Daubeny in the early nineteenth century, which gave the garden its glasshouses and ponds and contributed to its survival to the present day. This generously illustrated book is the first history of the garden and arboretum for more than a century and provides an essential introduction to one of Oxford’s much-loved haunts.

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Soldiers disguised as a herd of cows, cork bath mats for troops crossing streams and a tank with a piano attachment for camp concerts are just some of the absurd inventions to be found in this book of cartoons designed to keep spirits up during the Second World War. These intricate comic drawings poke gentle fun at both the instruments of war and the indignity of the air-raid shelter in Heath Robinson’s inimitable style.

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When Falstaff calls upon the sky to rain potatoes in The Merry Wives of Windsor, he is highlighting the late sixteenth-century belief that the exotic vegetable, recently introduced to England from the Americas, was an aphrodisiac. In Romeo and Juliet, Lady Capulet calls for quinces to make pies for the marriage feast of her daughter. This fruit was traditionally connected with weddings and fertility, as echoed by John Gerard in his herbal where he also explained that eating quinces would ‘bring forth wise children, and of good understanding’. Taking fifty quotations centring on flowers, herbs, fruit and vegetables, Margaret Willes gives these botanical references their social context to provide an intriguing and original focus on daily life in Tudor and Jacobean England, looking in particular at medicine, cookery, gardening and folklore traditions. Exquisitely illustrated with unique hand-painted engravings from the Bodleian Library’s copy of John Gerard’s herbal of 1597, this book marries the beauty of Shakespeare’s lines with charming contemporary renderings of the plants he described so vividly.

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W. Heath Robinson is best known for his hilarious drawings of zany contraptions, though his work ranged across a wide variety of topics covering many aspects of British life in the decades following the First World War. Starting out as a watercolour artist, he quickly turned to the more lucrative field of book illustration and developed his forte in satirical drawings and cartoons. He was regularly commissioned by the editors of Tatler and The Sketch and in great demand from advertising companies. Collections of his drawings were subsequently published in many different editions and became so successful as to transform Heath Robinson into a household name, celebrated for his eccentric brand of British humour. Heath Robinson drew many cartoons lampooning the excesses of the First World War and poking fun at the German army, bringing welcome comic relief to British soldiers and civilians. This book presents his complete First World War satire, from ridiculous weapons such as ‘Button Magnets’ to aeronautical antics and a demonstration of how to have a ‘Quiet Cup of Tea at the Front.’

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What sets Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein apart from so many other famous works of fiction? What special combination of creativity and vision made possible the drafting of Mag¬na Carta? When describing exceptional accomplishments like these – and the men and women behind them – we use the word ‘genius’. And while genius is difficult to define, we all recognize that elusive, special quality when we encounter it. Marks of Genius pays tribute to some of the most remarkable testaments to genius throughout human history, from ancient texts on papyrus and the extraordinary medieval manuscript The Douce Apocalypse to the renowned children's work The Wind in the Willows. Bringing together some of the most impressive treasures from the collections of the Bodleian Libraries, it tells the story of the creation of each work and its afterlife, offering insight into the breadth and depth of its influence as well as its power to fascinate. Illustrating works from Euclid, Dante and Handel to Einstein, Austen and Gandhi, Marks of Genius showcases over 100 books and manuscripts that constitute the pinnacle of human creativity and which we continue to revere and revisit.

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‘I have struck a city– a real city – and they call it Chicago ... I urgently desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages,’ so wrote Rudyard Kipling on his tour of America in 1899. From these inauspicious beginnings rose the ‘windy city’, home to the first skyscraper, gateway to the Great Lakes, birthplace of modern advertising and shorthand for stories about violent crime during America’s prohibition and Al Capone’s dominance of the ganglands. This book offers candid views of an extraordinary town, which has attracted citizens from all over Europe and the rest of the world. They have made the city what it is today – and written about it variously with affection, loyalty, disgust and amazement.

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Within Shakespeare’s lifetime there was already some curiosity about what the writer of such brilliant poems, sonnets and plays looked like. Yet like so much else about him, Shakespeare’s appearance is mysterious. Why is it so difficult to find images of him that were definitely made during his life? Which images are most likely to have been made by those close to Shakespeare, and why do these differ from each other? Also, why do newly ‘discovered’ images claimed as representations of the playwright emerge with such regularity? Shakespeare scholar Katherine Duncan-Jones examines these questions, beginning with an analysis of the tradition of the ‘author portrait’ before, during, and after Shakespeare’s life. She provides a detailed critique of the three images of Shakespeare likeliest to derive from life-time portrayals: the bust in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon; the ‘Droeshout engraving’ from the First Folio edition of Shakespeare’s plays published in 1623; and the ‘Chandos portrait’, painted in oil on canvas in the early seventeenth century. Through a fresh exploration of the evidence and groundbreaking research, she identifies a plausible new candidate for the painter of ‘Chandos’. This also throws new light on the last years of Shakespeare’s life. This generously illustrated book also examines the afterlife of these three images, as memorials, in advertising and in graphic art, together with their adaptation in later commemorative statues: all evidence of a continuing desire to put a face to one of the most famous names in literature.

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Written originally for the education of the polite London classes in ‘canting’ – the language of thieves and ruffians – should they be so unlucky as to wander into the ‘wrong’ parts of town, A New Dictionary of Terms, Ancient and Modern, of the Canting Crew by ‘B.E. Gent’ is the first work dedicated solely to the subject of slang words and their meanings. It is also the first text which attempts to show the overlap and integration between canting words and common slang. In its refusal to distinguish between criminal vocabulary and the more ordinary everyday English of the period, it sets canting words side by side with terms used by sailors, labourers, and those in the common currency of domestic culture. With an introduction by John Simpson, chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, describing the history and culture of canting in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as well as the evolution of English slang, this is a fascinating volume for anyone with a curiosity about language, or wishing to reintroduce ‘Dandyprat’ or ‘Fizzle’ into their everyday conversation. Anglers, c Cheats, petty Thievs, who have a Stick with a hook at the end, with which they pluck things out of Windows, Grates, &c. also those that draw in People to be cheated. Dandyprat, a little puny Fellow. Grumbletonians, Malecontents, out of Humour with the Government, for want of a Place, or having lost one. Strum, c. a Periwig. Rum-Strum, c. a long Wig; also a handsom Wench, or Strumpet.

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This series celebrates the Bodleian Library’s acquisition of Tom Phillips’s archive of over 50,000 photographic postcards dating from 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. Each title in this series is thematically assembled and designed by the artist, the covers featuring a linked painting specially created for each title from Tom Phillips’s signature work, A Humument. With an illuminating foreword by Eric Musgrave, 'Menswear' presents postcards of men in all manner of outfits, whether formal, practical or casual, dating from around 1900 up to c. 1949. Most of the subjects are posing for portraits, displaying both their individual style and an interpretation of the fashions of the time. The rich variety of accessories on display includes ties, gloves, pocket squares, walking sticks, canes, boutonnières and spats.

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Sarah Angelina Acland (1849-1930) is one of the most important photographers of the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods. Daughter of the Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, she was photographed by Lewis Carroll as a child, along with her close friend Ina Liddell, sister of Alice of Wonderland fame. The critic John Ruskin taught her art and she also knew many of the Pre-Raphaelites, holding Rossetti's palette for him as he painted the Oxford Union murals. At the age of nineteen she met the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, whose influence is evident in her early work. Following in the footsteps of Cameron and Carroll Miss Acland first came to attention as a portraitist, photographing the illustrious visitors to her Oxford home. In 1899 she then turned to the challenge of colour photography, becoming, through work with the 'Sanger Shepherd process', the leading colour photographer of the day. Her colour photographs were regarded as the finest that had ever been seen by her contemporaries, several years before the release of the Lumière Autochrome system, which she also practised. This volume provides an introduction to Miss Acland's photography, illustrating more than 200 examples of her work, from portraits to picturesque views of the landscape and gardens of Madeira. Some fifty specimens of the photographic art and science of her peers from Bodleian collections are also reproduced for the first time, including four unrecorded child portraits by Carroll. Detailed descriptions accompany the images, explaining their interest and significance. The photographs not only shed important light on the history of photography in the period, but also offer a fascinating insight into the lives of a pre-eminent English family and their circle of friends.

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The first known rules of golf were drawn up in 1744 in Edinburgh for the world's first open golf competition at Leith by the Gentlemen Golfers of Edinburgh, who became The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. In the nineteenth century, the rules evolved as local clubs took the Edinburgh rules and adapted them for their own use. In 1897 the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews assumed oversight of the rules and in the same year published the first national set of rules. This book examines the history of the rules of golf from their first codification to the present day. It looks at the circumstances of the composition of the first rules, their scope, and afterlife.

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Q is the Quadrille, danced at our party R for the Reindeer, of Santa Claus hearty This very special picture book is an unusual and utterly enchanting ABC entirely devoted to the theme of Christmas. Each of the twenty-six images opens a window onto festive celebration, from the lighting of the candles on the tree, to bell-ringing, ice skating and making jam tarts. The images are of superb quality, bringing to life each event with vivid strokes and colour. The accompanying verses tell simply but engagingly of the round of joyful activities which delighted young children. Together, they tell a narrative story of a child’s Victorian Christmas, celebrated in the splendour and cosiness of the family home. First printed in 1894, this beautiful book is sure to become a new children’s classic, evoking Christmas of a bygone era with tremendous appeal and unrivalled charm.

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First published in 1920, How to Dine in Style opens a window onto the golden age of elegant dining, where the basic function of ingesting nourishment was elevated to a high social art, attended by intricate details and elaborate ritual. Starched linens, candles, white gloves, apéritifs, ball suppers, French menus and garden-parties – this is the world of the decadent classes who came to prominence in the post-war period. Published in an age where achieving a reputation for throwing recherché dinner parties was a route to international celebrity, this is a book about food as performance art. In it we catch tantalizing glimpses of astonishing excess such as the craze for eccentric venues for dinner parties, including the roof of a Chicago home (for amateur mountaineers), a lion’s den, and a gondola in the Savoy. An engaging blend of practical advice and a catalogue of eccentricity, this book contains everything you need to know, from the fine art of composing a menu to the practicalities of the correct order and temperatures for serving wines.

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In 1811, architect, stone mason and shell obsessive George Perry published a lavishly illustrated volume, his Conchology or the Natural History of Shells, featuring 348 beautifully illustrated mollusc shells with descriptions of species, many of which were new to science. Despite the effort that went into producing the work, at a time when conchophilia', or shell fancying, was at its height, Perry's Conchology all but disappeared without a trace in the scientific literature, apparently actively supressed by the leading conchologists of the day and then cruelly mocked for decades afterwards. This book reproduces the stunning, exquisitely drawn and sometimes fanciful shell illustrations from this extraordinary forgotten volume. Following an introduction exploring our fascination with shells and their impact on human history, culture and science, each of the sixty-one colour plates is included alongside a description of notable shells and what is known of the mysterious organisms that mak

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Clare Leighton was one of the most prolific and highly regarded wood engravers of her time, leaving behind a body of work that reflected her rural life in Britain and North America. During the 1930s, as the world around her became increasingly technological, industrial, and urban, Leighton portrayed rural men and women and the ancient methods they used to work the land that would soon vanish forever. Her two best-loved publications, The Farmer’s Year and Four Hedges, reflect this passion for the British countryside. Less well known are her books illustrating and describing rural life in the United States of America, where she emigrated and became a naturalized citizen in 1945, including Southern Harvest and Where Land Meets Sea: The Tide Line of Cape Cod. Leighton also spent time in Canada with the logging community, winning the respect of Canadian lumberjacks by adopting their way of life. Her wood engravings depicting lumberjacks in the snow-covered forests of Canada are some of her most evocative prints. This lavish anthology includes beautifully reproduced extracts and a detailed introduction to the artist’s life and work, reflecting Leighton’s lifelong fascination with the virtues of the countryside and the people who worked the land.

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Reynard – a subversive, dashing, anarchic, aristocratic, witty fox from the watery lowlands of medieval East Flanders – is in trouble. He has been summoned to the court of King Noble the Lion, charged with all manner of crimes and misdemeanours. How will he pit his wits against his accusers – greedy Bruin the Bear, pretentious Courtoys the Hound or dark and dangerous Isengrim the Wolf – to escape the gallows? Reynard was once the most popular and beloved character in European folklore, as familiar as Robin Hood, King Arthur or Cinderella. His character spoke eloquently for the unvoiced and disenfranchised, but also amused and delighted the elite, capturing hearts and minds across borders and societal classes for centuries. Based on William Caxton’s bestselling 1481 English translation of the Middle Dutch, but expanded with new interpretations, innovative language and characterisation, this edition is an imaginative retelling of the Reynard story. With its themes of protest, resistance and duplicity fronted by a personable, anti-heroic Fox making his way in a dangerous and cruel world, this gripping tale is as relevant and controversial today as it was in the fifteenth century.

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‘There are few historical developments more significant than the realisation that those in power should not be free to torture and abuse those who are not.’ – Amal Clooney On 10 December 1948, in Paris, the United Nations General Assembly adopted an extraordinarily ground-breaking and important proclamation: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This milestone document, made up of thirty Articles, sets out, for the first time, the fundamental human rights that must be protected by all nations. The full text of the document is reproduced in this book following a foreword by human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and a general introduction which explores its origins in the ‘Four Freedoms’ described by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the role his wife Eleanor Roosevelt took on as chair of the Human Rights Commission and of the drafting committee, and the parts played by other key international members of the Commission. It was a pioneering achievement in the wake of the Second World War and continues to provide a basis for international human rights law, making this document’s aims ‘as relevant today as when they were first adopted a lifetime ago.’

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This beautiful collection brings together passages from the renowned stories, poems, dramas and myths of South Asian literature, including the Mahābhārata and the Rāmāyaṇa. Drawing on the translations published by the Clay Sanskrit Library, the book presents episodes from the adventures of young Krishna, the life of Prince Rāma and Hindu foundational myths, the life of the Buddha, as well as Buddhist and Jaina birth stories. Pairing key excerpts from these wonderful Sanskrit texts with exquisite illustrations from the Bodleian Library’s rich manuscript collections, the book includes images of birch-bark and palm-leaf manuscripts, vibrant Mughal miniatures, early printed books, sculptures, watercolour paintings and even early photograph albums. Each extract is presented in both English translation and Sanskrit in Devanāgarī script, and is accompanied by a commentary on the literature and related books and artworks. The collection is organised by geographical region and includes sections on the Himalayas, North India, Central and South India, Sri Lanka and South East Asia, Tibet, Inner and East Asia, and the Middle East and Europe. This is the perfect introduction for anyone interested in Sanskrit literature and the manuscript art of South Asia – and beyond.

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'Buy my Dish of great Eeles, Any Old Iron take money for, Twelve Pence a Peck Oysters, Buy my fat Chickens, Fair Lemons & Oranges' Marcellus Laroon’s 'The Cryes of the City of London drawne after the Life' presents, in seventy-four striking portraits, a panorama of London’s marginal men and women: street vendors, hustlers and petty criminals together with the shouts (or cries) they used to hawk their wares, as they existed at the end of the seventeenth century. Following an illustrated introduction which sets Laroon’s engravings within the tradition of the Cries, each portrait is beautifully reproduced with a commentary that illuminates the individual street-seller and their trade. The commentaries provide a wealth of detail about their dress, the equipment they used to ply their trade, the meat and drink of those they served and their own diets. This book also mines historical archives for contemporary reports about the colourful and often desperate lives of these hawkers. Drawing on the historic material found in the Burney Collection of English newspapers, this book provides a fascinating insight into the men and women who made their livelihood, legally and illegally, on the streets of England’s capital.

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Many things in the natural world are round – the moon, the sun, a nest, a bubble. And so are many delicious things to eat – a ball of ice-cream, a doughnut, a pie. And so too are more decorative objects such as a crown, a clock or a bauble on a Christmas tree. Through gentle verse this charming book, first published in the 1950s, explores a surprising range of items and sounds that come in round shapes. Striking and vibrant illustrations by Vladimir Bobri add humour and warmth to this joyful geometrical exploration for young children.

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While Jeu de paume has been played in France for hundreds of years and was associated with the French and English medieval and renaissance courts, the modern game of tennis dates from 1874, when the rules were defined by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield. Published in association with the All England Lawn Tennis Club (Wimbledon), this book examines the history of the rules of tennis from their first codification to the present day. It also looks at the circumstances of the composition of the first rules, their scope, and afterlife, as they moved from manuscript to publication.

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Drawn from the manuscript collections at the Bodleian Library, this delightful softback notebook set features the distinctive handwriting of three remarkable women writers and thinkers: Jane Austen, Mary Shelley and Ada Lovelace. The Library holds part of the manuscript of Jane Austen’s unfinished novel, 'The Watsons', together with the original notebooks in which Mary Shelley wrote 'Frankenstein' and the personal correspondence of mathematical pioneer Ada Lovelace. Inspirational and unusual, these useful literary notebooks make the ideal gift for writers and book-lovers alike.

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Plants and gardens play a central role in life on Earth. They have provided food, clothing, shelter, medicines, employment, leisure and enjoyment throughout history. Both also have many symbolic uses in art, mythology and literature, making plants and gardens the perfect theme for the Designer Bookbinders fourth International Competition held at the Bodleian Library in 2022. The chosen theme also celebrates 400 years since the founding of Oxford Botanic Garden. This beautiful catalogue features richly illustrated texts and finely printed volumes which are bound with skill and creativity using varied materials by binders from all over the world. The fourth in a series following on from 'Bound for Success' in 2009, 'Prize Volumes' in 2013 and 'Heroic Works' in 2017, 'A Gathering of Leaves' is a celebration of the stunningly inventive winning bindings featured alongside all the competition entries.

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The University Archives was established in 1634. Based in the Bodleian Library, it is the institutional archive of Oxford University, holding records which span just over 800 years, documenting the University’s activities and decisions throughout that time. Fifty-two documents and objects from the University Archives are showcased here, telling a wide range of intriguing stories about the University. Arranged chronologically, they deal with the University’s relations with governments and monarchs; the effects of war; teaching and student behaviour; the University’s buildings and institutions; widening access to university education; and the impact it has had on the city of Oxford and its people. Also documented here are fascinating insights into the University’s erstwhile police force, a hidden time capsule, brewing licences, brawls and illicit steeplechasing. The items – all illustrated – also often unlock human stories to which we can relate today, opening a window on the individuals (from University, city, or even further afield) whose lives the University has touched, including people who would perhaps not be expected to feature in a history of Oxford University, but whose stories are preserved forever in its magnificent archives.

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When Marjory Wardrop joined her diplomat brother, Oliver, in Georgia in 1894, they found themselves witnessing the birth pangs of a modern nation. Recognising the significance of these transformative years, they actively participated in the work of Ilia Chavchavadze and other leaders of the independence movement, culminating in Georgia’s declaration of independence in 1918. Becoming increasingly fascinated by Georgian history and culture, the Wardrops gathered a significant collection of manuscripts dating from the eleventh to the twentieth century, including a seventeenth-century manuscript of Georgia’s national epic poem, ‘The Man in the Panther’s Skin’, which Marjory famously translated. A remarkable number of items in the collection, now housed at the Bodleian Library, illuminate an important aspect of medieval and modern Georgia. Through these items – manuscripts, royal charters, correspondence, notebooks and a draft of the 1918 declaration of Independence – Nikoloz Aleksidze narrates a history of Georgian literature and culture, from the importance of epic and folk tales, to the Georgian Church’s battle against persecution, to the political activism of women in Georgia at the end of the nineteenth century. Richly illustrated with rare and previously unpublished images from the collection, this book not only offers a unique insight into Georgian culture and political history and but also tells the remarkable story of an eccentric English diplomat and his talented sister, whose monument now stands outside the parliament building in Tbilisi

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In the summer of 1816, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, then eighteen years old, began to write the novel Frankenstein after she and her lover Percy Bysshe Shelley took part in a ghost-story competition at Lord Byron’s villa by Lake Geneva. Over the next nine months -- a period which saw their return to England in autumn 1816 and subsequent marriage -- she (with Percy) drafted the entire novel in a form materially different from the two standard editions of 1818 and 1831 which were based on a later fair copy. Until now, no one has been able to read what Mary Shelley herself initially wrote in this original draft of the novel. Going back to the unique draft manuscript of the text held in the Bodleian Library, Charles E. Robinson has teased out Percy Shelley’s amendments, isolating them from the story in Mary Shelley’s hand. Both texts – with and without Percy’s interventions – are presented in this edition, allowing us for the first time to read the story in Mary’s original hand and also to see how Percy edited his wife’s prose. The results are fascinating. We read a more rapidly paced novel that is arranged in different chapters. Above all, we hear Mary’s genuine voice which sounds to us more modern, more immediately colloquial than her husband’s learned, more polished style. To this day, Frankenstein remains the most popular work of science fiction. This edition promises to redefine the ways we read the story and perceive the act of its creation.

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'The Bay Psalm Book' was the first book to be printed in North America, twenty years after the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers in Massachusetts. Now extremely rare – only eleven copies survive – it is also the most expensive book in the world, fetching over $14.2 million at auction. Worship in the ‘mother tongue’ and congregational hymns had become key tenets of Puritanism following the Reformation. New England Puritans were unhappy with contemporary translations of the Psalms and decided that they needed their own version, which would better represent their beliefs. A team of writers in the Massachusetts Bay settlement, including John Cotton and Richard Mather, set about translating the psalms into English from the original Hebrew, and setting the lyrics to a metre so that they could easily be sung in congregation. The resulting translation, 'The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre,' was published in 1640 on a printing press brought over from Surrey. It became known as the Bay Psalm Book after the name of the colony that was home to its translators. Every page of this extraordinarily influential book, including the translators’ preface, is faithfully reproduced here, complete with original printer’s errors and binding marks. An introduction by Diarmaid MacCulloch sets the book in context and explains how this unassuming Psalter came to have a profound effect on the course of the Protestant faith in America. This edition is made from the original held at the Bodleian Library, one of the best preserved of the surviving copies, despite its accidental submersion in the river Thames in 1731, when the barge carrying it to Oxford unexpectedly sank.

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At the turn of the fifteenth century, private devotionals became a speciality of the renowned Ghent–Bruges illuminators. Wealthy patrons who commissioned work from these artists often spared no expense in the presentation of their personal prayer books, or ‘books of hours’, from detailed decoration to luxurious bindings and embroidery. This enchanting illuminated manuscript was painted by the Master of the David Scenes in the Grimani Breviary (known as the David Master), one of the renowned Flemish illuminators in the sixteenth century. Every page of the manuscript is exquisitely decorated. Fine architectural interiors, gorgeous landscapes and detailed city scenes, each one depicting a narrative, form the subjects of three full-size illuminations and forty-two full-page miniatures. There are floral borders on a gold ground or historiated borders in the Flemish and Italian style on every page. It is one of the finest examples of medieval illumination in a personal prayer book and the most copiously illustrated work of the David Master to survive. The manuscript owes its name to the French Queen, Marie de Medici, widow of King Henri IV. For a time she went into exile in Brussels, where she is thought to have acquired the manuscript before moving again to Cologne. An inscription in English states that she left the book of hours in this city, and it is here that an English manuscript collector, Francis Douce, may have acquired the book and eventually donated it to the Bodleian Library. Together with a scholarly introduction that gives an overview of Flemish illumination and examines each of the illustrations in detail, this full-colour facsimile limited edition, bound in linen with a leather quarter binding and beautifully presented in a slipcase, faithfully reproduces all 176 leaves of the original manuscript.

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A haunting anthology of supernatural stories and the macabre by well-known authors of gothic novels, folklore and fairy tales, each featuring a chillingly striking black-and-white illustration.

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Marley’s ghost, Bob Cratchit’s slide down icy Cornhill, Mr and Mrs Fezziwig’s dance, and of course Ebenezer Scrooge himself, are all exquisitely illustrated in this luxury collector’s edition of Charles Dickens’s perennial seasonal favourite. Arthur Rackham’s colour wash drawings and silhouettes, first published during the First World War, bring a threatening and haunting atmosphere to Scrooge’s story, which contrasts wonderfully with the gifts and games of Belle’s household. Rackham was a leading illustrator in the golden age of book illustration, when groundbreaking techniques for colour printing were developing fast. He illustrated over sixty books and specialized in children’s classics and fairy tales. This landmark edition helped to consolidate the idea of the Dickensian Christmas and the tradition of the Christmas gift book. It is a beautiful version of a classic story, which never ceases to be relevant to our times.

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An extraordinary account of the unique role that Oxford played in the Second World War, drawn from first-hand narratives and material from University and college archives.

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George Orwell’s essay examines the power of language to shape political ideas. It is about the importance of writing concisely, clearly and precisely and the dangers to our ability to think when language, especially political language, is obscured by vague, clichéd phrases and hackneyed metaphors. In it, he argues that when political discourse trades clarity and precision for stock phrases, the debasement of politics follows. First published in Horizon in 1946, Orwell’s essay was soon recognised as an important text, circulated by newspaper editors to their journalists and reprinted in magazines and anthologies of contemporary writing. It continues to be relevant to our own age.

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‘Everything you ever wanted to know about cats in books. A wonderful idea, beautifully executed.’ - Viv Groskop Cats have provided the inspiration for an incredible range of fiction, memoir and poetry, from ancient myths and fables to much-loved children’s books, and from classic tales to contemporary novels. Featuring such famous feline characters as Puss in Boots, Tom Kitten, Pangur Bán, the Cheshire Cat, Macavity, Pluto and Bob the street cat, this light-hearted book is a whirlwind journey through the history of literary cats, uncovering their domestication, early cultural beginnings and religious associations, exploring their roles in different literary genres and revealing some real-life authors’ cats, including those belonging to Edgar Allen Poe, Ernest Hemingway, Patricia Highsmith and Muriel Spark. A section on cats in world literature introduces narrator cats and cat companions from Japan, Eastern Europe, France, Greece, Germany and Finland, demonstrating their enduring worldwide appeal. A must for all cat-lovers, this book celebrates the inspirational connections between our favourite feline friends and the literary imagination.

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Built between 1855 and 1860, Oxford University Museum of Natural History is the extraordinary result of close collaboration between artists and scientists. Inspired by John Ruskin, the architect Benjamin Woodward and the Oxford scientists worked with leading Pre-Raphaelite artists on the design and decoration of the building. The decorative art was modelled on the Pre-Raphaelite principle of meticulous observation of nature, itself indebted to science, while individual artists designed architectural details and carved portrait statues of influential scientists. The entire structure was an experiment in using architecture and art to communicate natural history, modern science and natural theology. 'Temple of Science' sets out the history of the campaign to build the museum before taking the reader on a tour of art in the museum itself. It looks at the façade and the central court, with their beautiful natural history carvings and marble columns illustrating different geological strata, and at the pantheon of scientists. Together they form the world’s finest collection of Pre-Raphaelite sculpture. The story of one of the most remarkable collaborations between scientists and artists in European art is told here with lavish illustrations.

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The vocabulary of past times, no longer used in English, is always fascinating, especially when we see how it was pilloried by the satirists of the day. Here we have Victorian high and low society, with its fashionable and unfashionable slang, its class awareness and the jargon of steam engines, motor cars and other products of the Industrial Revolution. Then as now, people had strong feelings about the flood of new words entering English. Swearing, new street names and the many borrowings from French provoked continual irritation and mockery, as did the Americanisms increasingly encountered in the British press. In this intriguing collection, David Crystal has pored through the pages of the satirical magazine, Punch, between its first issue in 1841 and the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, and extracted the articles and cartoons that poked fun at the jargon of the day, adding a commentary on the context of the times and informative glossaries. In doing so he reveals how many present-day feelings about words have their origins over a century ago.

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At first sight, this intriguing map appears to offer a guide to the pubs of Victorian Oxford, designed in a similar way to tourist maps today. Beerhouses, breweries and other licensed premises are all shown, clustered around a specific part of the city centre. But an explanation on the reverse shows this wasn’t the original intention. Published in 1883 by the Temperance Movement, the map was designed to show how the poorer areas of Oxford were heavily populated with drinking establishments and the text explains the detrimental effect of alcohol on local inhabitants: ‘the result is idleness and ill-health, and very frequently poverty and crime.’ The map also reveals how few ‘drink-shops’ (shown in red) appear in North Oxford, where the magistrates who granted the licences were most likely to live. This unique map was therefore intended to prevent alcohol consumption, while at the same time demonstrating how easy it was to find somewhere to drink. Today, it offers a fascinating insight into the drinking habits of the former citizens of this world-renowned city. 'The Drink Map' is reproduced with the original text and a commentary on the reverse.

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Many people have a love of maps. But what lies behind the process of map-making? How have cartographers through the centuries developed their craft and established a language of maps which helps them to better represent our world and users to understand it? This book tells the story of how widely accepted mapping conventions originated and evolved – from map orientation, projections, typography and scale, to the use of colour, map symbols, ways of representing relief and the treatment of boundaries and place names. It charts the fascinating story of how conventions have changed in response to new technologies and ever-changing mapping requirements, how symbols can be a matter of life or death, why universal acceptance of conventions can be difficult to achieve and how new mapping conventions are developing to meet the needs of modern cartography. Here is an accessible and enlightening guide to the sometimes hidden techniques of map-making through the centuries.

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What would a greengrocer say if you were to ask for half a dozen Grenadiers and a couple of Catsheads? In the course of the past century we have lost much of our rich heritage of orchard fruits, but with taste once again triumphing over shelf-life and a renewed interest in local varieties, we are rediscovering the delights of that most delicious and adaptable fruit: the apple. This book features apples from the Herefordshire Pomona that are still cultivated today. The Pomona – an exquisitely illustrated book of apples and pears – was published at the height of the Victorian era by a small rural naturalists’ club. Its beautiful illustrations and authoritative text are treasured by book collectors and apple experts alike. From the familiar Blenheim Orange and Worcester Pearmain to the less fêted yet scrumptious Ribston Pippin, Margil and Pitmaston Pine Apple, Heritage Apples is illustrated with the Pomona’s stunning paintings and tells the intriguing stories behind each variety, how they acquired their names, and their merits for eating, cooking or making cider. Also including practical advice on how to choose and grow your own trees, this is the perfect book for apple-lovers and growers.

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DIPLOMACY, n. The patriotic art of lying for one's country In 1881 Ambrose Bierce, journalist and former soldier for the Union army in the Civil War, began writing satirical definitions for the San Francisco Wasp, and then for William Randolph Hearst's San Francisco Examiner. Bierce was launched on a journalistic career that would see him liked and loathed in equal measure – and earn him the title of ‘the wickedest man in San Francisco’. In his column, Bierce, a contemporary of Mark Twain, brought his biting black humour to bear on spoof definitions of everyday words, writing deliberate mistranslations of the vocabulary of the establishment, the Church and the politics of his day, and shining a sardonic light on hypocrisy and deception. These columns formed the beginnings of a dictionary, first published in 1906 as The Cynic’s Word Book. Over 100 years later, Bierce’s redefinitions still give us pause for thought – REPORTER, n. A writer who guesses his way to the truth and dispels it with a tempest of words; UN-AMERICAN, adj. Wicked, intolerable, heathenish; POLITICS, n. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage – making for a timely new edition of this irreverent and provocative satire.

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Since its foundation in 1860, the Oxford University Museum of Natural History’s world-renowned collections have become a key centre for scientific study and its much-loved building an important icon for visitors from around the world. The museum now holds over seven million scientific specimens including five million insects, half a million fossil specimens and half a million zoological specimens. It also holds an extensive collection of archival material relating to important naturalists such as Charles Darwin, William Smith, William Jones and James Charles Dale. This lavishly illustrated book features highlights from the collections ranging from the iconic Dodo (the only soft tissue specimen of the species in existence) and the giant tuna (brought back from Madeira on a perilous sea crossing in 1846) to crabs collected by Darwin during his voyage on the Beagle, David Livingstone’s tsetse fly specimens and Mary Anning’s ichthyosaur. Also featured are the first described dinosaur bones, found in a small Oxfordshire village, the Red Lady of Paviland (who was in fact a man who lived 29,000 years ago) and a meteorite from the planet Mars. Each item tells a unique story about natural history, about the history of science, about collecting, or about the museum itself. They give a unique insight into the extraordinary wealth of information and the fascinating tales that can be gleaned from these collections, both from the past and for the future.

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In their celebration of ‘little matters’ – the regular round of visiting, dining out, drinking tea, of reading and walking to the shops and sending to the post – Jane Austen’s letters and novels have many similarities. The thirteen letters collected by Jane Austen’s House Museum, in Chawton, Hampshire and reproduced in this book give us intimate glimpses into her life in Bath and Chawton and on visits to London, many of their details finding echoes in her fiction. 'Jane Austen: The Chawton Letters' traces a lively story beginning in 1801, when, aged twenty-five, Jane Austen left Steventon in Hampshire to move to Bath. Later letters relish the shops, theatres and sights of London, but are interspersed from 1809 with the quieter routines of village life in Chawton, Hampshire, which was to be her home for the remainder of her short life. We learn here of her anxieties for the reception of Pride and Prejudice, her care in planning Mansfield Park and the hilarious negotiations over the publication of Emma. These letters, each accompanied by reproductions from the original manuscripts in Jane Austen’s hand, testify to Jane’s deep emotional bond with her sister: the most moving letter of all is that written by Cassandra only days after Jane’s death in Winchester in July 1817. Brought together in this little book, these artefacts make a delightful modern-day keepsake of correspondence from one of the world’s best-loved writers.

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This collection of essays offers an intimate history of Austen’s art and life told through objects associated with her personally and with the era in which she lived. Her teenage notebooks, music albums, pelisse-coat, letters, the homemade booklets in which she composed her novels and the portraits made of her during her life all feature in this lavishly illustrated collection. By interpreting the outrageous literary jokes in her early notebooks we can glimpse the shared reading activities of Jane and her family, together with the love of satire and home entertainment which can be traced in the subtler humour of her mature work. It is well known that Austen played the piano but her music books reveal how music was used to create networks far more intricate than the simple pleasures of home recital. Examination of Austen’s pelisse-coat tells us something about her physique and, with the lively letters to her sister Cassandra, gives an insight into her views on fashion. The exploration of yet more objects – the Regency novel, newspaper articles, naval logbooks, and contemporary political cartoons – reveals Austen’s filiations with wider social and political worlds. These ‘things’ map the threads connecting her (from India to Bath and from North America to Chawton) to those on the international stage during the wars with France that raged through much of her short life. Finally, this book charts her reputation over the two hundred years since her death, offering fresh interpretations of Jane Austen’s changing place in the world.

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