Past Events
Haydn á l'anglaise. His songs in late 18th-century England, including some he did not know he had written
- Friday 30 March 2012, Divinity School, Bodleian Library, Oxford
A lecture by Dr Derek McCulloch to accompany a Proscolium exhibition of early Haydn editions and manuscripts, followed by a short concert by members of his ensemble, Café Mozart.
This event was supported by the Haydn Society of Great Britain.
Signs of life at the Bodleian: genealogical diagrams in Bodleian collections
- Presented by Dr Giles Bergel (Tutorial Fellow, Faculty of English Language and Literature, University of Oxford)
Tuesday 28 February 2012
Convocation House, Bodleian Library, Oxford
The Bodleian Library holds extensive collections of genealogical materials in manuscript, print and other media. The holdings date from the earliest written records to more recent times and represent both a history of genealogy and a life-history of the book in many of its forms. This talk will showcase a selection from this relatively unexamined legacy.
Reconstructing a remarkable 17th-century garden from John Aubrey's drawing of the Deepdene, Dorking
- Presented by Sarah Couch (Architect, RIBA, and Visiting Lecturer, University of Bath)
Tuesday 7 February 2012
Convocation House, Bodleian Library, Oxford
Sarah Couch, architect and historic landscape specialist, will show how careful examination of Aubrey's drawing, now held in the Bodleian, reveals that much of Charles Howard's terraced Italian garden laid out in the mid-seventeenth century still survives. Sarah began her research into the Deepdene in 1992 and has produced historic landscape survey and management plans for the site, now the subject of a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Lost and Found: the Bodleian Shakespeare Folio
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Presented by Dr Emma Smith
Tuesday 22 November 2011
Convocation House, Bodleian Library
Dr Smith will discuss the story of how the Bodleian lost its First Folio of Shakespeare in the seventeenth century, and the efforts to get it back at the beginning of the twentieth. It's a story of personal rivalries as well as national ones, of a wonderfully amateurish and individual fund-raising campaign, and of the way Oxford was changing on the eve of the First World War - as well as about the value of the book itself.
Editing 'Huge Holinshed' for the 21st Century
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Presented by Dr Felicity Heal
Tuesday 8 November 2011
Convocation House, Bodleian Library
Dr Heal will talk about the two editions (1577 and 1587) of Holinshed's Chronicles, which was the definitive chronicle collection of the Elizabethan era, best known for providing much of the material for Shakespeare's English histories. She will look at the differences between the editions, and then discuss the on-line comparison of the texts that she and her colleagues have undertaken.
Visit to The Laskett Gardens
On 7 September 2011 the Friends of the Bodleian were allowed to roam through the varied horticultural rooms which compromise the garden of Sir Roy Strong's house, The Laskett.
Each part of the garden has a name apparently applied randomly to the four acres but commemorating a special event in the lives of Sir Roy and his wife Dr Julia Trevelyan Oman. Some parts of the garden mark the production of The Nutcracker at Covent Garden, others a book about the Elizabethan miniaturist, Nicholas Hilliard. As such, the garden can be viewed as their unique joint autobiography.
A selection of photographs from the visit can be viewed in The Laskett Photo Gallery.
Visit to Merton College, Oxford, Tuesday 5th July 2011, 2pm to 5pm
The Friends of the Bodleian were warmly invited to a private visit of Merton College, Oxford, the first fully self-governing College of the University of Oxford which boasts among its alumni Sir Thomas Bodley, T. S. Eliot, and J. R. R. Tolkien. Our visit to Merton included the following:
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Alan Bott, OBE, Bodley Fellow and historian, outlined Merton history and took us on a tour of the College buildings and gardens
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Dr Julia Walworth, Research Fellow and Librarian at Merton presented some of the treasures in the College Library
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Tea and homemade cakes were served in the hall
A masterpiece of evolution: Newly discovered evidence for the making of the Gough Map of Great Britain
- Presented by Dr Elizabeth Solopova
Tuesday 14 June 2011
Convocation House, Bodleian Library
One of the greatest treasures in the Bodleian Libraries, the medieval Gough Map of
A writer's apprenticeship: reading the clues in Jane Austen's 'Volume the First'
- Presented by Professor Kathryn Sutherland
Tuesday 17 May 2011
Convocation House, Bodleian Library
The notebook entitled 'Volume the First' was bought by the Friends of the Bodleian in 1933. It is one of three juvenile manuscript books that contain Jane Austen's earliest writings. Here, we see habits of writing and quirks of style that persisted into the later works. Of the three, 'Volume the First' has the least straightforward chronology and, in the sheer range of its experimental forms (short fictions, playlets, verses, and moral fragments), it represents the longest creative journey. In addition, half the meaning of the manuscript lies in its appearance as a mock book. The lecture will address these issues.
William Wey: the King's pilgrim?
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Presented by Francis Davey
Tuesday 8 March 2011
Convocation House, Bodleian Library
William Wey, fifteenth-century Devon priest, Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, and Bursar of Eton, made pilgrimages to Compostella, Rome and Jerusalem between 1456 and 1462. Francis Davey's recently published translation and edition of Wey's 'Itineraries' explore late medieval religious faith and travel. In this talk he examines possible reasons for Wey's extensive journeys across Europe and beyond.
Bent Juel-Jensen, Munificent Friend of the Bodleian Library
- 10 January 2011 - 6 February 2011
The 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 this 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 the 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 of the Library he loved.
Re-evaluation of the Malady of King George III; The Bland Burges Papers
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Presented by Professor Timothy Peters
Tuesday 18 January 2011
Convocation House, Bodleian Library, Oxford
In 1965 Ida Macalpine & Richard Hunter stated that the episodes of 'madness' of George III were due to the inherited metabolic disorder acute porphyria. In spite of objections raised at the time by porphyria experts, this diagnosis has become generally accepted. However, recent detailed review of the King's medical records, contemporary diaries and correspondence seriously challenge it. The private letters of James Bland Burges to his wife, now in the Bodleian Library, throw further doubt on the porphyria claims and indicate a preferred alternative. The lecture will also explore Macalpine & Hunters motives for making their porphyria claims.
Alfred Bestall, artist, cartoonist and illustrator of Rupert Bear
- Tuesday 30 November 2010, 5pm to 7pm
Convocation House, Bodleian Library, Oxford
The Friends of the Bodleian and Bloomsbury invited members of the Friends to an illustrated talk on Alfred Bestall, cartoonist and illustrator of Rupert Bear, and to the launch of The Life and Works of Alfred Bestall, a special anniversary edition celebrating 90 years of Rupert Bear.
The evening included an introduction by Professor Richard McCabe, Chairman of the Friends, and an illustrated talk by Caroline Bott. Guests were invited to view a small exhibition of original artwork drawn from the Bestall archive.
Illustrating Empire: images from the John Johnson Collection
- Presented by Ashley Jackson & David Tomkins
Tuesday 16 November 2010
Convocation House, Bodleian Library, Oxford
The Bodleian Library holds a significant collection of ephemera related to the British Empire as seen by generations of people in their everyday lives. This talk considers some of the themes encountered in studying the Empire and Britain's connections with the non-European world, using a selection of evocative illustrations from the Bodleian's John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera.
Norman Angell's 'The Great Illusion': The Centenary of a Flawed Classic
- Presented by Professor Martin Ceadel
Tuesday 2 November 2010
Convocation House, Bodleian Library, Oxford
In November 1910 Norman Angell published The Great Illusion, which argued that a modern great power could not gain from aggresion. Yet, though it launched Angell on a fifty-year career as a world-famous pundit who eventually won the Nobel Peace Prize, the book was deeply flawed in ways that have not been previously noticed. Martin Ceadel's recently-published biography also uncovers several of Angell's personal secrets.
Cavalli's Erismena performed by New Chamber Opera in New College Gardens
On Saturday 10 July 2010, New Chamber Opera gave a special performance of Cavalli's Erismena for the Friends of the Bodleian.
The opera was introduced in the presence of the manuscript in Convocation House in the Bodleian Library, followed by the opera performance in New College Gardens. Guests also enjoyed a picnic in the Cloisters during the interval.
The Bodleian Library was able to acquire the manuscript (the object of a temporary export ban) thanks to the generosity of many donors and the assistance of the Friends. The full score with a complete English singing translation was written in about 1670, 30 years before any other Italian opera is known to have been performed in Britian.
Cavalli is described as the greatest opera composer who worked between Monteverdi and Lully. Erismena is one of his romantic tragicomedies, originally produced in Italy in 1655.
Visit to Lambeth Palace Library, London, Tuesday 15 June 2010
Members of the Friends of the Bodleian attended a private viewing of the fascinating new exhibition, Treasures of Lambeth Palace Library - 400th Anniversary Exhibition 1610-2010. The exhibition draws upon the Library's rich collections, with some items on display for the first time. The visit began with tea and biscuits in the Palace's Guard Room with an introductory talk by Giles Mandelbrote, Lambeth Palace Librarian and Archivist and member of the Friends of the Bodleian Council.
Copper Plate Pictures: Prints for the Juvenile Market
- Presented by Jill Shefrin
Tuesday 8 June 2010
Convocation House, Bodleian Library, Oxford
A rare volume of prints, bound privately as a trade catalogue and issued by William Darton junior, was acquired by the Bodleian Library in 2008. Jill Shefrin, author of The Dartons: Publishers of Educational Aids, Pastimes & Juvenile Ephemera, 1787-1876, discusses what it reveals about the juvenile print trade in the first decades of the nineteenth century.
New Library for the 21st Century - A special Friends of the Bodleian event
Wilkinson Eyre Architects will unveil the plans for a multi-million pound refurbishment of the New Bodleian Library and Richard Ovenden, Associate Director and Keeper of Special Collections, will put them in context of the overall vision for the future Bodleian Libraries.
- Friday 7th May 2010 at 3pm
Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
followed by tea in the Divinity School, Bodleian Library, Oxford.
Guided tours of the New Bodleian are available including the Bindery, Conservation, Imaging Studio, Gilbert Scott-designed reading room, and views from the Indian Institute.
Letter writing, reading, and the rise of the novel: Jane Johnson of Olney and Samuel Richardson
- Presented by Dr Susan E. Whyman, F.R.H.S
Tuesday 4 May 2010
Convocation House, Boldeian Library, Oxford
Susan E. Whyman, author of The Pen and the People: English Letter Writers, 1660-1880 uses the Bodleian's manuscripts of Jane Johnson of Olney (1706-59) and the letters of Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) to explore reading, letter writing and the rise of the novel. The lecture will show the ties that bound the two writers: Richardson's influence on her works and Johnson's unexpected influence on his.
Archive Evening, Stationer's Hall, London, Monday 12 April 2010
Members were invited to attend a joint event with music and verse celebrating the 400th anniversary of the agreement between the Stationers' Company and the Bodleian Library.
In 1610 the Stationers' Company agreed to send the Bodleian Library, in perpetuity, a copy of every book printed by its members. This important agreement was the forerunner of Legal Deposit and contributed to the development of copyright. It resulted in the Bodleian acquiring some of the most important printed books in the English language.
What the Papers Say: Evelyn Sharp, author, journalist, suffragette and diarist
- Presented by Angela V. John
Tuesday 9 March 2010
Convocation House, Bodleian Library, Oxford
Angela V. John, author of Evelyn Sharp. Rebel Woman, 1869-1955, discusses the Sharp Papers in the Bodleian. They provide an unparalleled opportunity to explore the personal perspectives of a woman whose writings attracted considerable attention in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century press, yet who remains an elusive figure.
Library Philanthropy in the age of Thomas Bodley
- Presented by Professor James Raven (Professor of Modern History, University of Essex)
Tuesday 23 February 2010
Convocation House, Bodleian Library, Oxford
This lecture discusses some of the origins and implications of the foundation and development of 'public' libraries in the late 16th and early 17th century in England. What did 'publique' mean? What did some library founders and donors hope to achieve? What were their models and what were their expectations?
Professor James Raven (Professor in Modern History, University of Essex
This lecture will discuss some of the origins and implications of the foundation and development of 'public' libraries in the late 16th century and early 17th century in England
Tuesday 23 February 2010 at 1pm
"An uninterrupted excess of satisfaction": Samuel Pepys' naval papers in the Bodleian collections
- Presented by Justin Reay, FSA (Tutor in Naval History and Maritime Art, University of Oxford International Programmes)
Wednesday 4 November 2009 at 1pm
Convocation House, Bodleian Library, Oxford
An illustrated lecture covering Pepys' career at the Admiralty with descriptions of unpublished folios and key documents such as the Tangier Journal
"An uninterrupted excess of satisfaction": Samuel Pepys' naval papers in the Bodleian collections
"An uninterrupted excess of satisfaction": Samuel Pepys' naval papers in the Bodleian collections
An Ark for the Nation
Wine and sandwiches will be served in Chancellor's Court after the lecture at a cost of £5 per person, for which bookings should be made and paid for in advance with the Administrator, Friends of the Bodleian, Bodleian Library, Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BG. Tel: 01865 277234, email: fob@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
- Presented by Robert J. Bruce (Former Bodleian Staff member)
Wednesday 21 October 2009 at 1pm
Convocation House, Bodleian Library, Oxford
A story from the Second World War when the New Library was used as a refuge for important national collections under threat of destruction. From convoys of lorries to single parcels, more than 80 seperate deposits were received for safe-keeping between 1938 and 1945.
Representing Helen of Troy
- Presented by Professor Laurie Maguire (Magdalen College, Oxford)
Wednesday 13 May 2009 at 1pm
Cecil Jackson Room, Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
How do narrative and drama face the challenge of representing the most beautiful woman in the world? This talk will look at solutions offered by poets and filmakers from Homer to Hollywood.
Lewis Carroll in Numberland
- Presented by Professor Robin Wilson
Wednesday 29 April 2009 at 1pm
Convocation House, Bodleian Library, Oxford
Lewis Carroll's writings have inspired and entertained generations of readers, but now his forgotten achievements as a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church are finally brought to light. No knowledge of mathematics is assumed.
Professor Wilson will be signing copies of his book, Lewis Carroll in Numberland, in the Divinity School after the lecture.
Inside the Blackwell Collections in the Bodleian Library and Merton College: a new Decameron
- Presented by Rita Ricketts (Blackwell's Historian and Bodleian Visiting Scholar)
Wednesday 4 March 2009 at 1pm
Convocation House, Bodleian Library, Oxford
Blackwell's Historian and Bodleian Visiting Scholar will explore Blackwell's association with reading and writing folk in Oxford and around the world, the lives and times of its characters and its interactions with readers, customers and each other.
Woolly beaks: birds in South-Persian tribal rugs and bagfaces of the 19th century
- Presented by Dr Roger Tomlin (University Lecturer in Late Roman History, Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, and the Society of Antiquaries, London)
Wednesday 25 February 2009 at 1pm
Cecil Jackson Room, Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
A lecture illustrated by a display of tribal weavings from a private collection.
Hallelujah! Reflections on a swansong exhibition
- Presented by Peter Ward Jones (Bodleian Library)
Wednesday 3 December 2008
Cecil Jackson Room, Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
Peter Ward Jones, who is retiring after 40 years as the Bodleian's Music Librarian, offers an introduction to the new exhibition 'Hallelujah! The British Choral Tradition', with some musing on the process of its evolution.
Out of the labyrinth: Kafka's manuscripts
- Presented by Professor T. J. Reed (Former Taylor Professor of German Language and Literature, Queens College, Oxford, and Fellow of the British Academy)
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
Cecil Jackson Room, Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
In the year of the 125th anniversary of the birth of Franz Kafka, the Friends of the Bodleian present a thirty minute lecture and a display of selected manuscripts from the Library's Kafka archive.
From the Fastolf Master to Jan van Hogspeuw: the Poetic Importance of Philip Larkin's Picture Postcards
- Presented by Dr. Christopher Fletcher (Head of Western Manuscripts, Bodleian Library)
Wednesday, 4 June 2008
Cecil Jackson Room, Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
Part of the 'Friends of the Bodleian Thirty-Minute Lecture' series.
Bodleian Library MS. Tanner 190 (Marino Sanudo, Secreta Fidelium Crucis, Venice, c. 1321-1324): Europe and the wider world in the 14th century
- Presented by Dr. Christopher Tyerman (Fellow and Tutor in History, Hertford College, Oxford, who has published extensively on the Crusades)
Tuesday, 6 May 2008
Cecil Jackson Room, Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
Part of the 'Friends of the Bodleian Thirty-Minute Lecture' series.
Schubert in a Cold Climate
An entertaining talk illustrated with music, with readings by Mervyn Pascoe, followed by a wine reception.
- Presented by Dr. Elizabeth Norman McKay
Friday, 25 April 2008
The Grove Auditorium, Magdalen College, Oxford
Dr. McKay, a musician and music scholar with an international reputation, has published widely on Schubert and his music, including Franz Schubert’s Music for the Theatre and Franz Schubert: a Biography. A frequent broadcaster on Radio 3 and 4, her 1997 “Composer of the Week: Schubert” was repeated twice. In this talk she will explore the effects on Schubert’s music of, among other things, a volcanic eruption.
At Dr. McKay's request, proceeds will benefit the Bodleian Library.
An Elizabethan Panorama in the Bodleian Library: Mr Sheldon's Tapestry Maps Re-United
- Presented by Dr. Hilary L. Turner
Friday, 7 March 2008
Cecil Jackson Room, Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
Part of the 'Friends of the Bodleian Thirty-Minute Lecture' series.
The Bodleian has now acquired a major section of the Sheldon tapestry map of Gloucestershire, to add to the fragments of the Gloucestershire map and the tapestries of Oxfordshire and Worcestershire it already owned. The maps, dating from the 1590s, commissioned by Ralph Sheldon for his home at Weston, Warwickshire, are of major significance for artographic history.
The Gloucestershire map will be exhibited in the Library’s Exhibition Room (open 9am - 5pm, Monday to Friday; 9am – 4.30pm Saturday) until 23 February 2008.
Dr. Hilary Turner has worked as a freelance researcher and translator since writing her doctoral thesis which introduced her to Elizabethan (and older) maps.
Lord Derby: Prime Minister and Chancellor of Oxford University
- Presented by Dr. Angus Hawkins, FRHistS
Thursday, 21 February 2008
Cecil Jackson Room, Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
Part of the 'Friends of the Bodleian Thirty-Minute Lecture' series.
Dr. Hawkins is Director, International Programmes, Oxford University Dept. for Continuing Education, and Fellow and Bursar of Kellogg College. He has recently published the first volume of his biography The Forgotten Prime Minister: the 14th Earl of Derby, based upon Derby’s own papers and extensive archive.
Lord Derby (1799-1869) was the first British statesman to become Prime Minister three times and the longest-serving party leader in modern British politics, leading the Conservative Party from 1846 to 1868. He succeeded the Duke of Wellington as Chancellor of Oxford University in 1852.
Bodleian Library Past Exhibition and Events
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