Past Exhibitions
Main Exhibitions
Manifold Greatness: Oxford and the Making of the King James Bible
* In celebration of the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible (1611)
www.manifoldgreatness.org
Download the mobile app: iPhone, iPad or Android22 April - 4 September 2011
Exhibition Room, Bodleian LibraryThe Bodleian Library Summer 2011 exhibition tells the story of the most frequently printed book in English language, the King James Bible. Exploring the political, religious and intellectual context of its time, the exhibition looks at the events and conditions that led to and shaped this translation enterprise.
Commissioned by King James I of England and VI of Scotland (1566-1625), the translation was the outcome of the laborious efforts of 47 scholars located in Oxford, Cambridge and Westminster. Drawing on the Bodleian holdings, the rich resources of collegiate libraries from around the University of Oxford, and collections elsewhere, the exhibition specifically showcases the contribution of the Oxford translation committees, of which notable members were John Rainolds (President of Corpus Christi College), Henry Savile (Warden of Merton College) and Miles Smith (Corpus Christi and Brasenose College). The King James translation of the Bible exerted considerable cultural and social influence in the seventeenth century, and it has become ubiquitous in English-speaking culture.
The exhibition is a project organised by the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford in association with the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC where some items from the Bodleian exhibition will be on display at the Folger's related exhibition in Autumn 2011.
- Shelley’s Ghost: Reshaping the Image of a Literary Family
3 - 23 December 2010, 4 Jan - 27 March 2011
Exhibition Room, Bodleian Library
Twitter: #shelleysghost
http://shelleysghost.bodleian.ox.ac.uk - Online exhibition still available!
The Bodleian Library presents a major exhibition dedicated to one of the most renowned literary families in Britain: Percy Bysshe Shelley, his wife Mary Shelley, and Mary’s parents, William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. Spanning three generations of literary figures, the exhibition charts the history of a family blessed with genius but marred by tragedy. The Shelley family gave the first two parts of their family archive to the Bodleian in 1893-4 and 1946-61, whilst the final part -- known as the Abinger papers -- was bought by the Library in 2004 through a public appeal. The exhibition will showcase letters, literary manuscripts, rare printed books and pamphlets, portraits and relics. Star items will include Shelley’s own notebooks, a letter of John Keats, William Godwin’s diary and the original manuscripts of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The exhibition features treasures lent by the Pforzheimer Collection of the New York Public Library, many of which have never been on public display in the UK.
- 'My wit was always working': John Aubrey and the Development of Experimental Science
28 May – 31 Oct 2010
Exhibition Room, Bodleian Library
Twitter #aubrey2010
A list of events accompanying the exhibition can be found here.
Aubrey Online Gallery featuring a selection of items from the exhibition. Find out more>>
- Crossing Borders: Hebrew Manuscripts as a Meeting-place of Cultures
8 December 2009 – 3 May 2010
Exhibition Room, Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library winter exhibition tells the story of how together Jews, Christians and Muslims have contributed to the development of the book. It illustrates the cultural exchange, the social interaction and the religious toleration between Jews and non-Jews in the Muslim and the Christian worlds during the late Middle Ages. The exhibition draws on the Bodleian Hebrew holdings, one of the largest and most important collections of Hebrew manuscripts in the world. Visit the online exhibition>> - Voltaire Exhibition
28 October 2009 – 30 January 2010
Voltaire Room and Vestibule, Taylor Institution Library
On display: art by Julie Smith. Works inspired by Voltaire and the Reading Room. - 100 Years of Romance Linguistics in Oxford: Centenary Exhibition
20 November 2009 – 20 January 2010
Taylor Institution, St Giles’, Oxford
Oxford was the first, and remains the only, university in Britain to have an established Chair of the Romance Languages. This exhibition offers the chance to see some items from the Taylorian’s special collection of linguistic atlases. It focuses on a very small portion of this collection which provides invaluable first points of reference for anyone doing research in the field of comparative-historical Romance Linguistics. Exhibition curated by Professor Martin Maiden (Director of the Research Centre for Romance Linguistics www.ling-phil.ox.ac.uk/romance-linguistics/index.html) in collaboration with the Taylor Institution Library www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/taylor. - AN ARTFUL CRAFT: Historic Bookbindings from the Broxbourne Library and other collections
12 June – 31 October 2009
Exhibition Room, Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library summer exhibition features masterpieces from two of the greatest bookbinding collections of the 20th century: the Broxbourne Library collected by Albert Ehrman and the Wormsley Library formed by Sir Paul Getty. It also draws on other world-renowned historic collections in the Bodleian. The exhibition explores and celebrates the creativity of bookbinders across the centuries and from different cultures. On show will be stunning bindings ranging from medieval examples to contemporary masterpieces; from European to Islamic bookbinders; demonstrating both the art and the craft of bookbinding. - Hallelujah! The British Choral Tradition
28 November 2008 - 25 April 2009, Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library winter exhibition ranges over a thousand years of music making, especially celebrating four composers with anniversaries in 2009 – Purcell, Handel, Haydn and Mendelssohn, all with links to the British choral scene. Local choral foundations and choral societies are also featured. Highlights from the Bodleian’s own collection include the 13th-century Worcester Fragments, Handel’s conducting score of Messiah, and autographs of Purcell, Mendelssohn, Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Walton and Maxwell Davies. Eton College has lent the famous Choirbook, and the British Library its score of the Tallis 40-part motet, and autographs of Tippett (A Child of Our Time) and Britten (War Requiem). - 'Beyond the Work of One': Oxford College Libraries and their Benefactors
24 May to November 2008, Bodleian Library
Oxford college libraries and their benefactors. - Citizen Milton
8 December 2007 - 26 April 2008, Bodleian Library Exhibition Room
An exhibition celebrating the 400th anniversary of the birth of John Milton (1608–74).
Also see the online exhibition. - Italy's Three Crowns: 19 June - 31 October 2007, Bodleian Library Exhibition Room
Celebrating the impact of Italy's 'three crowns', Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, on western culture. - The Flower Garden of Spring: Paintings from Mughal India: 6 December 2006 - 28 April 2007, Bodleian Library
Summoned by Bells: John Betjeman and Oxford, 15 June - 28 October 2006, Bodleian Library
- Children's Games and Pastimes
Temporary Displays
Ragtime to riches, a musical legacy at the Bodleian Library
7 - 29 January
Walter Newton Henry Harding was not an academic or a book dealer – he worked as a ragtime pianist in Chicago – yet he was able to build an enormous collection of poetry and song, sheet music, and opera scores. His important collection of music ranged from French and Italian opera scores to English music hall songs. His legacy is celebrated in this display and with a concert and talks on 18 January.
Liebe Ottla
30 September - 30 October
Proscholium, Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library celebrates the acquisition of Franz Kafka’s letters to his sister in partnership with the Deutsches Literaturarchiv in Marbach. An exhibition of Franz Kafka’s letters to his sister Ottla with highlights from the Bodleian Kafka collection.
Korean Treasures: Rare Books, Manuscripts and Artefacts in the Bodleian Libraries
26 August - 26 September 2011
Proscholium, Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Libraries are home to many historically significant and valuable manuscripts, rare books, and artefacts related to Korean history and culture. Despite their importance, many of these items have been overlooked within the libraries’ collections and largely neglected by scholars. Korean Treasures seeks to change this by highlighting the many noteworthy and unusual items in the collections. Notable items include the court painting scroll of the funeral procession of King Yŏngjo (1694-1776); a presentation edition of a book given by King Yŏngjo to his son-in-law; a group of documents issued by Emperor Kojong (1852-1919) between 1885-1886 to confer various titles to his civil and military officials; a ceramic dish made and signed by Princess Yi Pangja (1901-1989) as well as rare books, some of which are included on the 100 Han’gŭl Heritage list and others only one or two copies are known to have survived in the world.
- As you Like it. Love poetry by Shakespeare and his contemporaries 19 July - 21 August 2011
Proscholium, Bodleian Library
A display to accompany performances at the Bodleian Library of As You Like It by Shakespeare's Globe on Tour.
- Linguistic geographies: three centuries of language, script and cartography in the Gough map of Great Britain
14 May - 26 June 2011
Proscholium, Bodleian Library
Proscholium, Bodleian Library
One of Britain's truly outstanding medieval maps will be on public display in the Proscholium, Bodleian Library. The 'Gough Map' is a remarkable English depiction of Great Britain, created sometime during the later fourteenth century and subsequently amended during the fifteenth century.
The precise origins of the Gough map have long been uncertain despite much scholarly interest. Only recently has the map received careful palaeographical study, and this has yielded a great deal more insight into the map's making and its use. The map was donated to the Bodleian Library in 1809 by the great antiquarian, Richard Gough, in whose volume on British Topography the map gained its first modern study. This exhibition includes both the Gough map - a unique manuscript - as well as Gough'sTopography, as two key documents of English cartographic history, providing viewers with a rare opportunity to see close-up the fine details of the map, and in particular the writing that appears on it. The map's script is a key to understanding its making and use, and the exhibition offers new interpretations based upon an on-going research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
The exhibition is organised by the Linguistic Geographies project team. The team wish to thank the Bodleian Library for its support of this exhibition, as well as the Arts and Humanities Research Council. For more information on the project please visit www.goughmap.org
- Piers Plowman: Visions of Heaven, Hell and Middle Earth
Proscholium, Bodleian Library
To coincide with the International Piers Plowman Society conference being held in Oxford from 14 to 17 April 2011 (see http://www.piersplowman.org). The display will consist mainly of manuscripts of Piers Plowman, the 14th-century allegorical poem in alliterative verse by William Langland. The Bodleian holds more manuscripts of Piers Plowman than any other individual library (15 out of 52 surviving manuscripts containing the complete poem).
- Cultural Revolution in Berlin: Jews in the Age of Enlightenment
Proscholium, Bodleian Library
This display tells the story of the emergence of Jewish Enlightenment in Germany and draws special attention to its most famous figure, Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786). The manuscripts and books on display are from the library of David Oppenheimer (1664–1736), Chief Rabbi of Prague, now at the Bodleian Library, and from the library of the nineteenth-century scholar Leopold Zunz now at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies with the support of the Foyle Foundation.
10 January 2011 - 6 February 2011
Proscholium, Bodleian Library
For almost fifty years Bent Juel-Jensen, Medical Officer of the University, Fellow of St Cross, book-collector extraordinary, was an active member of the Council of the Friends of the Bodleian Library. During that time he enthusiastically supported the Friends’ activities in acquiring books and manuscripts for the Library. He himself made a series of gifts of outstanding importance, concluding with large bequests of the best of his collection and the provision that should the Library want any other parts it could have them for half their valuation. By these means the Bodleian has gained, in particular, peerless collections of poets Sir Philip Sidney and Michael Drayton, scientists Hugh Plat and Stephen Hales, Microcosmographie and Good thoughts by the divines John Earle and Thomas Fuller, Ethiopic manuscripts, children’s tales and literary works by fellow-Danes Hans Christian Andersen and Johannes V. Jensen, and the contemporary publications of his friend the explorer Bruce Chatwin. This display celebrates the magnificent generosity of this exemplary Friend to the Library he loved.
13 November 2010 - 9 January 2011
Proscholium, Bodleian Library
This small display will showcase original Rupert artwork as well as examples of Bestall other work as an illustrator and cartoonist. Also on display are sketch books and an example of Bestall’s origami work. This display celebrates the launch of The Life and World of Alfred Bestall in a special anniversary edition celebrating 90 years of Rupert Bear, written by Bestall’s god daughter Caroline Bott. It also acknowledges the generosity of the Bott family in its wish that the Bestall archive should come to the Bodleian.
9 October - 6 November 2010
Proscholium, Bodleian Library
The Harcourt family papers, ranging from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries, represent one of the Bodleian’s finest collections of family papers. The current display celebrates the recent acquisition and cataloguing of the papers of the eighteenth-century Earls Harcourt. The family can be said to have reached its apogee in the Georgian era, when their circle of correspondents included leading political, literary and artistic figures as well as the royal family.
8 September – 6 October 2010
Proscholium, Bodleian Library
Equipped with a letter from King Henry VIII, John Leland spent four years (1533–1536) visiting the English monasteries and recording the contents of their libraries. He is often our only witness to writings that disappeared during the dissolutions of the late 1530s, and he is also responsible for the preservation of rare and valuable books transported to the royal libraries at Greenwich, at Hampton Court and at Westminster Palace.
CHILDHOOD INNOCENCE: Shakespeare for children
27 July - 5 September 2010
Proscholium, Bodleian Library
A display to accompany performances at the Bodleian Library of A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare's Globe on Tour.
24 June - 23 July 2010
Proscholium, Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library July display features one of the prominent scholars of the 17th century, John Selden (1584-1654). Inspired by his motto ‘Freedom above all things’ which he started using in 1619 after being attacked by the church establishment, the display celebrates the 400th anniversary of Selden’s first publications. Find out more>>
4 - 20 June 2010
Proscholium, Bodleian Library
This exhibition marks the tenth anniversary of Oxford English Dictionary (OED) Online and accompanies an academic conference on words and dictionaries held in Oxford in June 2010. The exhibits are selected to emphasise the links between the OED and the Bodleian; they include the famous dictionary by Cawdrey (recently republished by Bodleian Publishing), other fore-runners of the OED (including Johnson’s dictionary), examples of various editions of OED from the earliest to the latest, and photographs of the earlier lexicographers.
1 - 25 May 2010
Proscholium, Bodleian Library
In honour of the visit to Oxford of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra on 1 May. It features a selection of items that shows the breadth of the Library’s music collections.
26 March -25 April 2010
Proscholium, Bodleian Library
The Bodleian April display showcases a small selection of posters which used to be displayed on different means of transport across London in 1930s.
Admission Free
19 February – 30 March 2010
Taylor Institution Library, St Giles’, Oxford
The display marks the publication of two books by members of the sub-Faculty of Portuguese. Find out more>>
Curator: Professor T.F. Earle / sub-Faculty of Portuguese, in collaboration with the Library.
1-21 March 2010
Proscholium, Bodleian Library
The Bodleian March display explores the varied journeys of students, politicians, linguists, art critics, and poets through Oxford in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Their exchanges with the University and its Libraries are revealed through photographs, letters, published works, and other archival sources from the Bodleian and the College libraries. These reflect the many surprising ways in which Indians and Britons, including Mohandas Gandhi, C.F. Andrews, Laurence Binyon, Cornelia Sorabji, and Rabindranath Tagore, interacted in the period.
The display is linked to the AHRC-funded project Making Britain: South Asian Visions of Home and Abroad, 1870-1950 (Open University, Oxford University, King’s College, London) www.open.ac.uk/arts/south-asians-making-britain
1-27 February 2010
Proscholium, Bodleian Library
The Bodleian February display showcases thirty eight items which illustrate how St. Valentine’s Day was marked in the nineteenth century. Part of the John Johnson Collections of Printed Ephemera, the valentines come in many forms, from exquisite creations of lace paper, silk, scraps, tinselling and artificial flowers accompanied by elaborate poetry to humble woodcuts with prosaic and occasionally insulting verses. Also on display are publishers’ and tinsellers’ stockbooks, games of love, and even a pincushion heart. Find out more>>
2 Dec 2009 – 24 Jan 2010
Proscholium, Bodleian Library. Admission Free
A small exhibition of Raymond Chandler manuscripts and memorabilia to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his death. On display for the first time are drafts of poems, novels and film scripts, plus a selection of photographs, including stills from his most famous movies, notablyThe Big Sleep, with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.
An extract from Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights in sixteen unique bookbindings. The author is collaborating with charity publisher Oak Tree Fine Press this Christmas to publish a new book entitled À Outrance.All profits go to children made vulnerable by HIV/Aids in southern Africa.
Proscholium, Bodleian Library
Proscholium, Bodleian Library
To celebrate 150 years of friendship between the two countries, Japan–UK 150, a nationwide series of events, has been running from autumn 2008 until the end of 2009. As its contribution to the event, Bodleian has arranged a display of manuscripts and printed books to illustrate early UK’s encounters with Japan.
Taylor Institution Library
St Giles’, University of Oxford
Curator: Professor N.F. Palmer. Organised by the Taylor Institution Library, in collaboration with the sub-Faculty of German, University of Oxford.
The accompanying exhibition booklet can be downloaded here.
A display celebrating crime fiction
Bodleian Library Proscholium Old Schools Quad, Catte Street, Oxford
A display celebrating the 300th anniversary of the birth of Samuel Johnson, author of the Dictionary of English Language
Proscholium, Bodleian Library Find out more >>
12 June – 1 August 2009
Proscholium, Bodleian Library
The display showcases 127 shortlisted submissions in the first Designer Bookbinders International Competition, and the winners of the Sir Paul Getty Bodleian bookbinding Prize. Entrants representing 29 countries offer highly creative and surprisingly diverse interpretations on the theme of water. Using a variety of media, the exhibits represent a wide assortment of modern approaches to the art of the hand-bound book.
A small display to celebrate Abraham Lincoln’s Bicentennial on 12 February 2009.
A small exhibition featuring books by and about Machado de Assis. Open to all. Monday to Friday 9am - 7pm, Saturday 10am - 4pm.
A small display to mark six hundred years since Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, promulgated the Provincial Constitutions in 1409. In association with the conference at St John’s College from 16 to 18 April.
A small display featuring a collection of manuscripts and printed books and accompanying the conference with the same title held at University College between 16 and 17 March 2009.
6 January - 14 February 2009, Bodleian Library
A temporary small display featuring works by two most significant figures in the history of human anatomy teaching: Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) and Henry Gray (1827-1861). The display coincides with the winter meeting of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland, including a symposium on The Art of Anatomy, St Anne's College, Oxford.
This year Vivian Ridler, distinguished Printer to the Oxford University Press from 1958 - 78, celebrates his 95th birthday. This exhibition displays a fascinating selection of Christmas cards sent by printers and artists to Vivian and his late wife, the poet Anne Ridler, over a period of 60 years.
On the bicentenary of the British intervention in the Peninsular War, the Library displays a selection of papers of Sir Charles Oman, the author of the most comprehensive account of this phase of the Napoleonic Wars. The papers come from the archive of Lady Julia Trevelyan, presented to the Library last year by her husband Sir Roy Strong.
A small display of manuscripts to coincide with The Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery, 12–14 September 2008
A special display to accompany the Globe Theatre's performances of The Winter's Tale in the Bodleian Library quadrangle.
A display to mark the 125th anniversary of the birth of one of the world’s greatest writers.
A new acquisition on display
A new acquisition on display
An exhibition to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade.
A display to celebrate Mary Gardiner's life-long dedication and passion in collecting the much-loved game Happy Families.