Search results for ""Bodleian Library""

During the Second World War the Bodleian Library in Oxford acquired a set of Aramaic letters, eight sealings, and the two leather bags in which the sealed letters were once stored. The letters concern the affairs of Aršāma, satrap of Egypt in the later fifth century. Taken with other material associated with him (mostly in Aramaic, Demotic Egyptian, and Akkadian), they illuminate the Achaemenid world of which Aršāma was a privileged member and evoke a wide range of social, economic, cultural, organizational, and political perspectives, from multi-lingual communication, storage and disbursement of resources, and satrapal remuneration, to cross-regional ethnic movement, long-distance travel, religious practice, and iconographic projection of ideological messages. Particular highlights include a travel authorization (the only example of something implicit in numerous Persepolis documents), texts about the religious life of the Judaean garrison at Elephantine, Aršāma's magnificent seal (a masterpiece of Achaemenid glyptic, inherited from a son of Darius I), and echoes of temporary disturbances to Persian management of Egypt. But what is also impressive is the underlying sense of systematic coherence founded on and expressed in the use of formal, even formalized, written communication as a means of control. The Aršāma dossier is not alone in evoking that sense, but its size, variety, and focus upon a single individual give it a unique quality. Though this material has not been hidden from view, it has been insufficiently explored: it is the purpose of the three volumes of Aršāma and his World: The Bodleian Letters in Context to provide the fullest presentation and historical contextualization of this extraordinary cache yet attempted. Volume I presents and translates the letters alongside a detailed line-by-line commentary, while Volume II reconstructs the two seals that made the clay bullae that sealed the letters, with special attention to Aršāma's magnificent heirloom seal. Volume III comprises a series of thematic essays which further explore the administrative, economic, military, ideological, religious, and artistic environment to which Aršāma and the letters belonged.

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Everyday life in early thirteenth-century England is revealed in vivid detail in this riveting collection of correspondence of people from all classes, from peasants and shopkeepers to bishops and earls. The documents presented here include letters between masters and servants, husbands and wives, neighbors and enemies, and cover a wide range of topics: politics and war, going to fairs and going to law, attending tournaments and stocking a game park, borrowing cash and doing favors for friends, investigating adultery and building a windmill. While letters by celebrated people have long been known, the correspondence of ordinary people has not survived and has generally been assumed never to have existed in the first place. Martha Carlin and David Crouch, however, have discovered numerous examples of such correspondence hiding in plain sight. The letters can be found in manuscripts called formularies—the collections of form letters and other model documents that for centuries were used to teach the arts of letter-writing and keeping accounts. The writing-masters and their students who produced these books compiled examples of all the kinds of correspondence that people of means, members of the clergy, and those who handled their affairs might expect to encounter in their business and personal lives. Tucked among the sample letters from popes to bishops and from kings to sheriffs are examples of a much more casual, ephemeral kind of correspondence. These are the low-level letters that evidently were widely exchanged, but were often discarded because they were not considered to be of lasting importance. Two manuscripts, one in the British Library and the other in the Bodleian Library, are especially rich in such documents, and it is from these collections that Carlin and Crouch have drawn the documents in this volume. They are presented here in their first printed edition, both in the original Latin and in English translation, each document splendidly contextualized in an accompanying essay.

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'I loved this memoir' - Raynor Winn, author of The Salt Path'A whole new way of looking at a familiar landscape' - Neil Ansell, author of The Last Wilderness'Delightful' - Country LifeAn old map. A lost pilgrimage route. A journey in search of our walking heritage.When Henry VIII banned pilgrimage in 1538, he ended not only a centuries-old tradition of walking as an act of faith, but a valuable chance to discover the joy of walking as an escape from the burdens of everyday life.Much was lost when these journeys faded from our collective memory, but clues to our past remain. On an antique map in Oxford's Bodleian Library, a faint red line threading through towns and villages between Southampton and Canterbury suggests a significant, though long-forgotten, road. Renamed the Old Way, medieval pilgrims are thought to have travelled this route to reach the celebrated shrine of Thomas Becket.Described as England's Camino, this long-distance footpath carves through one of the nation's most iconic landscapes - one that links prehistoric earthworks, abandoned monasteries, Saxon churches, ruined castles and historic seaports.Over four seasons, travel writer Gail Simmons walks the Old Way to rediscover what a long journey on foot offers us today. In the age of the car, what does it mean to embrace 'slow travel'? Why does being a woman walking alone still feel like a radical act? In an age when walking connects the nation, can we now reclaim pilgrimage as a secular act?Winding 240 miles between the chalk hills and shifting seascapes of the south coast, Gail ventures deep into our past, exploring this lost path and telling a story of kings and knights, peasants and pilgrims, of ancient folklore and modern politics. Blending history, anthropology, etymology and geology, Gail's walk along the Old Way reveals the rich natural and cultural heritage found on our own doorstep.

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In 1865 the Victorian poet Matthew Arnold rejoiced in the charm of Oxford, 'that sweet City with her dreaming spires'. A century and a half later, That Sweet City offers a visual and poetic tribute to what is still one of the fairest and most enthralling places in the world. Designed in the form of seven walks across and around Oxford, and radiating out into the surrounding countryside, this book evokes the buildings and landscapes, both famous and less well-known, that have witnessed and shaped the city's history. The first sequence of pictures and poems, Seven Sights of Oxford, leads the reader (and walker) from Christ Church Meadow across the High Street to the Radcliffe Camera; thence down Broad Street to St. Giles, the University Parks and Port Meadow. The second, Seven Secret Sights, offers a circular tour of lesser-known landmarks from the Town Hall to Folly Bridge, the Old Railway Bridge and Isis Lock, the re-emergent Radcliffe Campus, Mesopotamia and The Plain. Seven Ages of Oxford, starting with the Saxon Tower of St. Michael's Church in the Cornmarket, and finishing in the University s science area in South Parks Road (via the Castle, Worcester College, Christ Church, the Sheldonian Theatre and the University Museum), provides a short and eclectic history of the city and its ancient University. Other sequences of poems and paintings include Seven Treasures of Oxford (with the Alfred Jewel and the Bodleian Library), Seven Sights around Oxford (with Otmoor, Kelmscott and Blenheim Palace) and Seven Products of Oxford (including marmalade, books and Oxfam). A final walk, Seven Gardens of Oxford, celebrates the diversity of the city s many green spaces. An introduction provides a concise history of Oxford and explains the choice of sights, the structure of the poetry and the inspiration behind the illustrations. Maps make it easy for visitors to follow the walks and find their way around the city. In words and images, That Sweet City evokes a place constantly changing yet timeless in its beauty.

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A FLAME TREE NOTEBOOK. Beautiful and luxurious the Foiled Quarto Journals combine high-quality production and FSC pages with magnificent art. Perfect as a gift, and an essential personal choice for writers, notetakers, list-makers, travellers, students, poets and diarists. Features a wide range of well-known and modern artists, with new artworks published throughout the year. A NEW SERIES. The Quarto format is named after the earliest form of European printed publication, dating back to the 1400s when Gutenberg invented the first moveable-type printing press, heralding a revolution in mass communication, spreading ideas of literature, science and philosophy of the Renaissance. We celebrate this with our range of fine art and contemporary illustrations. 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, table, in the hand and in your bag. PRACTICAL, EASY TO USE. Flame Tree Notebooks come with practical features too: the high-quality, 120-gsm lined pages are FSC, Acid Free and Bleed Proof – suitable for all pen types, such as gel and rollerball. A pocket at the back for scraps and receipts, two ribbon markers to help keep track of more than just a to-do list, and a magnetic side flap helps keep everything neat and tidy. THE 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 beaut

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Housing the world's collective knowledge, within which reside the milestones of human intellectual achievement, libraries are perhaps the richest of all cultural institutions. Often architectural treasures in themselves, they were constructed in styles that befitted the riches they stored, from Neoclassical temples to Baroque palaces to Jeffersonian athaeneums. Both public in purpose and intensely private in feel, they have served the noble role of preserving and disseminating that key cultural artifact of mankind - the book - and in doing so, their role has been central to the nourishment and development of the world's great civilizations. To this day the great libraries of the world remain extraordinary environments for scholarship and enlightenment. Here, for the first time, architectural photographer Guillaume de Laubier takes the reader on a privileged tour of twenty-three of the world's most historic libraries, representing twelve countries and ranging from the great national monuments to scholarly, religious, and private libraries: the baroque splendor of the Institut de France in Paris; the Renaissance treasure-trove of the Riccardiana Library in Florence; the majestic Royal Monastery in El Escorial, Spain; the hallowed halls of Oxford's Bodleian Library; and the New York Public Library, a Beaux-Arts masterpiece. Also included are the smaller abbey and monastic libraries - often overlooked on tourist itineraries - each containing its own equally important collections of religious and philosophical writings, manuscripts, and church history. Through color photography one can marvel at the grandeur of the great public libraries while relishing the rare glimpses inside scholars-only private archives. The accompanying text by journalist and translator Jacques Bosser traces the history of libraries from the Renaissance to the present day, vividly describing how they came to serve the famous men of letters of centuries past and the general public of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress, shares a personal association with libraries in his foreword. As repositories of history, ever growing and fed upon by hungry minds, libraries continue to occupy a central place in our civilization - and this sumptuous volume of photographs pays fitting tribute to that tradition.

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NOW A MAJOR SKY TV SERIES.THE NUMBER ONE INTERNATIONAL AND SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER. A Discovery of Witches is the first novel in the must-read ALL SOULS series. It begins with absence and desire. It begins with blood and fear. It begins with a discovery of witches.---A world of witches, daemons and vampires.A manuscript which holds the secrets of their past and the key to their future.Diana and Matthew - the forbidden love at the heart of it.When historian Diana Bishop opens an alchemical manuscript in the Bodleian Library, it's an unwelcome intrusion of magic into her carefully ordered life. Though Diana is a witch of impeccable lineage, the violent death of her parents while she was still a child convinced her that human fear is more potent than any witchcraft. Now Diana has unwittingly exposed herself to a world she's kept at bay for years; one of powerful witches, creative, destructive daemons and long-lived vampires. Sensing the significance of Diana's discovery, the creatures gather in Oxford, among them the enigmatic Matthew Clairmont, a vampire geneticist. Diana is inexplicably drawn to Matthew and, in a shadowy world of half-truths and old enmities, ties herself to him without fully understanding the ancient line they are crossing. As they begin to unlock the secrets of the manuscript and their feelings for each other deepen, so the fragile balance of peace unravels...Fall under the spell of Diana and Matthew in the stunning first volume of the No.1 internationally bestselling ALL SOULS series.---Five reasons to read A Discovery of Witches and the All Souls series:'Rich, thrilling . . . A captivating and romantic ripping yarn' E L James'Intelligent and off-the-wall . . . irresistible to Twilight fans' Sunday Times'I could lose myself in here and never want to come out . . . Utterly enchanting on every level' Manda Scott'Exciting amounts of spells, kisses and battles, and is recounted with enchanting, page-turning panache'Marie Claire'A bubbling cauldron of illicit desire . . . an assured saga that blends romance with fantasy'Daily Mail

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