Andrew Honey, Bodleian book and paper conservator, sends this puzzle: Volume 13 of Conciliorum omnium, generalium et prouincialium collectio regia. Paris, 1644, 37 vols ; (folio), shelfmark fol. BS 12 (t. 13) contains the printed waste shown here. The boards might … Continue reading Holiday treasure hunt: printer’s waste
January – March 2021, Fridays at 2:15pm (GMT) with special session 29 Jan. at 5pm (GMT) Conveners: Cristina Dondi (Lincoln College, Oxford) and Alexandra Franklin (Bodleian Centre for the Study of the Book) On-line: Join mailing list using this online form. Registrations will be honoured in the order received. You can register for the whole series or for selected seminars. Note, you must be registered at least 48 hours in advance to receive the joining instructions for that seminar. January 22 Matthew Payne, Keeper of the Muniments, Westminster Abbey, ‘Follow the Money: Wynkyn de Worde, Jacques Ferrebouc and the Bardi’ … Continue reading Oxford Seminar in the History of the Book
The Bodleian Libraries hold two copies of the first folio edition of Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (1623). These have not always been in the Library, though; hear about the tangled history of the ‘Bodleian’ copy from Emma Smith, here. And see the fully-digitised copy, shelfmarked Arch. G c.7, here. And read here about the conservation effort to secure this volume. See the list of digitized First Folios maintained by Sarah Werner at her blog Wynken de Worde http://sarahwerner.net/blog/digitized-first-folios/ Continue reading The ‘Bodleian’ First Folio
The product of the early modern printing press is not the page, or the book, but the sheet. A book might consist of several sheets of paper folded into quires or gatherings, or just one. What revolutions and reversals make the pages either end up facing each other or separated by several other pages? Here’s a little book in the format called duodecimo. This book of twelve leaves or 24 pages is printable on one (double-sided) sheet of A4 paper, so it makes a really tiny book. The imposition plan used here comes from Philip Gaskell, A New Introduction to … Continue reading A foldable chapbook
Following the lead of sister site Teaching the Codex, the Teaching the Book site reaches out for examples you have found that demonstrate particular features of books in the age of the hand-press. Formats can include a short text with image, a film, or a gallery of Multiples. Contributions are welcome, on all aspects of discovering material, preparing for sessions, or the experience of teaching with early books at any level. Please note the essential guide below: Text should be 300-400 words Images must be sent as jpegs and under 1 MB. Films must be available to all, to be … Continue reading Contribute to Teaching the Book
To save money and space many early book owners gathered up a number of separately published items and bound them together. Sometimes there was a theme, sometimes it was simply that everything was of a similar size, and occasionally the contents appear to be random. These volumes are referred to by various names. In the Bodleian, the preferred term is ‘bound-with’, and more than one hundred thousand volumes of separately published printed books, pamphlets, dissertations and single sheets are bound this way. Bodleian shelfmarks that include a bracket indicate there are several items bound together. For example, ‘Arch. G d.45 … Continue reading Bound-with, nonce, tract, pamphlet volume, and Sammelband
Claire Bolton, 12 October 2020 Occasionally we encounter type letters that have fallen from the locked-up type in its forme, landed on the inked text, and been printed, thereby leaving an impression in the printed page. They are usually caused by the printers’ error of poor lock-up. When the forme of type letters was not locked up tightly enough for printing the letters could be pulled up by the sticky ink during the inking process. The presence of a piece of type on the set page also stops the other nearby letters printing onto the sheet – the fallen type … Continue reading Fallen type
Writing models from manuscript to print: France, England and Europe, c. 1400-1800 Professor Marc Smith September-October 2020 and March 2021 First four lectures online now: podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/lyell-lectures From the later Middle Ages to the early nineteenth century, western handwriting was subjected … Continue reading Lyell Lectures 2020
Teaching the book: Resources for bibliography and book history in the hand-press period 