The Bodleian Libraries (BODcasts)

Join our experts in conversation as they consider the thinking of two great 19th century women writers exploring the boundary between human and machine Using the notebooks of Sir Humphry Davy, an influence on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and the surviving manuscripts of the novel itself, Professor Sharon Ruston will consider Shelley’s thought-process in writing and how far the Creature might be thought of as crossing a boundary between automaton and man.

Professor Ursula Martin will reflect on Ada Lovelace’s work exploring algorithms finding patterns in nature and her conjecture on the capabilities ‘beyond number’ of Charles Babbage’s unbuilt Analytical Engine. She will discuss Lovelace’s letter speculating on how a ‘calculus of the nervous system’ would aid understanding of the human mind.

The event is part of ‘Imagining AI’, which celebrates objects in the Bodleian's collections that explore the boundary between human and machine.

Discover how cutting-edge scientific techniques are transforming our understanding of medieval manuscripts, and how book production began to recover under King Alfred and his successors

Discover the treasures that illustrate how exchanges between England and the Netherlands have shaped literature, book production and institutions such as the Bodleian itself, on either side of the North Sea.

Dr Martin Holford and Dr David Rundle explore how the Italian Renaissance led to major changes in how manuscripts were made, written and decorated in England.

Focusing on four very different maps of Oxford - each of the maps has its own tale to tell, some showing Oxford as it was; others showing Oxford as it might have been; and others how Oxford never was. This webinar will be focus on four very different maps of Oxford from the standpoint of why these maps were made. Each of the maps has its own tale to tell, some showing Oxford as it was; others showing Oxford as it might have been; and others how Oxford never was. Each has an agenda aiming to depict a city under the influence of the military, mass delinquency, motor vehicles or moles. Nick Millea, Map Curator, and Stuart Ackland, Principal Library Assistant, Map Room, will focus on each map’s aesthetic charms, their functionality, and how they have visualised such a well-known city in such unusual ways.

Join us to be surprised, alarmed and charmed in equal measure as we appreciate the purpose of these of maps but never lose sight of the powerful image they are able to convey.

Dating from around 1520 and probably conceived as a pattern book, this manuscript is best described as a 'herbal and bestiary' and contains images of flora and fauna together with stylised, floriated ornaments and coloured alphabets. MS Ashmole 1504, which can best be described as a 'herbal and bestiary', contains images of flora and fauna together with stylised, floriated ornaments and coloured alphabets. Dating from around 1520, the manuscript was probably conceived as a pattern book for a variety of decorative media, including wall painting, stained glass, painted cloths and embroidery.

Dr Martin Kauffmann, Head of Early and Rare Collections at the Bodleian Libraries, and Dr Lynn Hulse, Co-Founder of Ornamental Embroidery, explore MS Ashmole 1504 and the project inspired by it: The Needle's Art, an exhibition of contemporary stitch, on display at the Weston Library until 30 January 2022.

In the 3rd talk in our Meet the Manuscripts series, you will learn how singers lived with change in their favourite songs, and hear carols of the Middle Ages both familiar and new. Have you ever come close to fisticuffs with a friend over the tune to which ‘O little town of Bethlehem’ should be sung? You’re experiencing a very old problem. The Bodleian’s Selden Carol Book is a famous collection of Christmas songs that only barely made it into modern consciousness: many of them survive in no other books, but have been modified in the manuscript itself, meaning that we have more than one version to choose between. How do we deal with phenomena of scribal correction, error, and variation in late medieval carols? What can this tell us about performance and the oral culture of the late medieval period?

Speakers: Micah Mackay, doctoral student in the Publication Before Print Doctoral Centre and Andrew Dunning, R. W. Hunt Curator of Medieval Manuscripts

In this lecture, we look at some beautiful, austere, and distinctively uncomfortable manuscripts and learn how the Middle Ages shaped the way we read today both in print and on screen. Medieval manuscripts written in early English are familiar and yet foreign to us, not only for their language but also for their style. Like their cathedral counterparts, Gothic script and page design come across to us as beautiful, austere, and distinctively uncomfortable. But is this how their designers intended them – and can we indeed speak of these books as designed?

Exploring their physical function in manuscripts – and the bad things that can happen when they are removed for study – as well as showing what they can contribute to book history. Leafing through a manuscript, it’s easy to ignore the fragments of other books that were often used to strengthen its binding or as endleaves to protect the beginning and end of the text. In this session the fragments are the focus.

Manuscripts:

MS. Lat. th. c. 10 – Guardbook of fragments. (https://medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/catalog/manuscript_6695)

MS. Hamilton 13 – Summa theologiae, Secunda Secundae, by Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274) originating in Erfurt, Germany. With fragments of Dante, Monarchia, with the commentary attributed to Cola di Rienzo. (https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/641872ca-263b-41f6-b844-69ff6281bdf8/)

MS. Laud Misc. 306 – Homiliary and sermons, 12th century, originating in Germany. (https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/b2fb86ae-c8cd-4738-aa37-0a7d3e3ab0cc/surfaces/a86e86c7-e22b-4010-97a1-f7ab105e5abf/)

MS. Douce 55 – cookery book in English, 15th century (https://medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/catalog/manuscript_4726)

Join Professor Stephen Harris (Curator of Roots to Seeds at the Bodleian Library) and Dr Chris Thorogood, (Oxford Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum) as they discuss the past, present and future of botanical research and teaching. Discover how the herbarium of Bobart the Elder, John Sibthorp's 'Flora Graeca' expedition and the Amazonian waterlily have contributed to four centuries of Oxford botany and current research.