The Bodleian Libraries (BODcasts)

David Pearson, Lyell Reader in Bibliography 2017-18 and Research Fellow, Institute of English Studies, University of London gives the third Lyell lecture on 1st May 2018.

David Pearson, Lyell Reader in Bibliography 2017-18 and Research Fellow, Institute of English Studies, University of London gives the second 2018 Lyell lecture on 26th April 2018.

David Pearson, Lyell Reader in Bibliography 2017-18 and Research Fellow, Institute of English Studies, University of London, gives the first of the 2018 Lyell lectures on Tuesday 24 April 2018.

Jacob Ward, Bodleian Libraries Byrne-Bussey Marconi Fellow, Department of Science and Technology Studies, UCL, gives the 2018 Marconi lecture. The term 'wireless' has very different meanings today to what it meant in the early twentieth century. Today, it connotes mobility, flexibility, instantaneity, whereas previously it has connoted fixity - 'the' wireless - and spirituality, with transmitting invisible signals through the ether.

In this lecture, Jacob Ward explores what happened to 'wireless' in between these two meanings, from after World War II to the birth of the new wireless in the 1980s and 1990s, by exploring the imagination and imagery associated with wireless communications by its biggest proponents: the Marconi Companies.

This one-off print comprised text and drawing by artist and writer Tamarin Norwood, concluding her year-long residency at Spike Island Bristol, The Bodleian Libraries helped artist Tamarin Norwood to create an artwork 38 feet long, with text printed in a single continuous line using the replica 17th-century hand-press at the Weston Library for Special Collections.

Russell Maret talks about the development of the primary themes of his artist's books - alphabet design, colour printing, and geometric form, also the influences of history and technology on his methods and subject matter.

Visiting fellow, Dr Robin Eagles of the History of Parliament Trust discusses his research into Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford

Visiting researcher Dr Rachel Wamsley discusses the renowned Oppenheimer Collection, whose holdings shed light on the printing house as a site of cultural and literary encounter between Jews and Christians in early modern Europe. Close examination of early printed Yiddish books reveals how the same text could assume radically different material forms depending on whether it was marketed to a Jewish or non-Jewish audience. Setting two editions of an early Yiddish biblical epic side-by-side, Dr. Wamsley notes differences in typography and page-layout, editing and paratext, demonstrating how textual migration, from one cultural context to another, in turn engendered a transformation in the materiality of the book itself. At the same time, this very migration testifies to the surprising porosity of literary boundaries dividing Jewish and Christian communities in early modernity.

Dr Noah Arceneaux, Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Media Studies, San Diego State University, Byrne-Bussey Marconi Visiting Fellow 2016-17, Bodleian Library, talks about the history of wireless broadcasting and the Bodleian Marconi Archive.

Dr Zahra Taheri, Bahari Visiting Fellow in the Persian Arts of the Book, speaks about Rumi's life, mystical teaching, doctrine, and poetry. With Music by Dr Peyman Heydarian. With a recitation of poetry by Rumi.

Maulana Jalal Al-Din Muhammad, known as RUMI (1207-1273) is the most prominent mystic poet in Persian literature. When he was a child, his family fled Mongol invaders and settled in Konya. He left behind a vast body of lyric poetry, metaphysical writings, and mystical didactic teachings, which have influenced Persian, Urdu, and Turkish literature across the centuries. Rumi is one of the most widely read poets in translation today. His teachings are universal in nature, because he believes that religion is a personal experience which cannot be limited to logical arguments.