The Bodleian Libraries (BODcasts)

ARCHiOX - Seeing the Unseen in Oxford University Collections

10 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Experts discuss how the latest 3D recording technology has supported their research by revealing near-invisible markings from originals held at Oxford...

Reading in the Woods - Dating the Undatable: from blocks to prints

02 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth Savage and Ed Potten. A conversation reflecting on the techniques for ascribing dates to woodblocks and prints.

Reading in the Woods - First Impressions: Woodblocks used for printing

02 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Andrew Honey and Alexandra Franklin Discovering and re-discovering the uses of wooden printing blocks within a library.

Reading in the Woods - Conserving the Wooden Library

02 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Madeleine Katkov, Alex Walker and Nicole Gilroy Exploring the conservation of the fabric and content of Bodley’s Library.

Modernist Photobooks, Propaganda and the Everyday

03 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Associate Professor Donna West Brett gives a lecture on the collection of photobooks donated to the Bodleian Library in 2020 by Sir Charles Chadwyck-H...

Exploring Chaucer Here and Now

05 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this webinar, Professor Marion Turner introduces some of the themes of Chaucer Here and Now, the exhibition currently on view at the Weston Library...

'The hooly blisful martir for to seke' Manuscripts with Chaucer’s pilgrims

03 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales tell the story of pilgrims 'from every shires ende / Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende’. Experience these journeys,...

We Rise (Together): Taking and Making Space for BIPOC Book Arts Creatives, Cultures, and Histories

13 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tia Blassingame introduced her work leading the Book/Print Artist/Scholar of Color Collective (aka Book/Print Collective) and shared methods for suppo...

The Dancing Master in Context: Playford’s publishing and music-making in 17th century England

30 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this session, we explore what Playford’s publishing activities can tell us about how music was incorporated into different social environments in...

A dance band for Playford?

02 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This talk will consider how and why the frontispiece to this edition was different from those in earlier editions and place the image in relation to o...

Persian lacquered bookbinding: A journey through its layers and conservation challenges

17 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Conservation Scientist Prof. Dr. Mandana Barkeshli looks at lacquered bookbindings made by Persian artisans in the 16th to 19th centuries. Persian art...

Analysis of Pigments on Painted Byzantine and Japanese Manuscripts

04 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

An introduction to the analysis of painted Byzantine and Japanese manuscripts by the Bodleian Libraries' new Heritage Scientist. The post of Heritage ...

Daniel Meadows - 50 years of The Free Photographic Omnibus

27 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Daniel Meadows is a pioneer of contemporary British documentary practice. A photographer, documentarian and digital storyteller. He returns to the Bod...

Queer Bibliography: A Discussion

26 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What is queer bibliography? How does it intersect with other critical bibliographies, (feminist, Black and liberation bibliography)? How does it relat...

The New Nature of the Book: Publishing and Printing in the Post-Digital Era

13 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this lecture, Matthew Kirschenbaum considers textual stability, a concern of publishers and readers since before the advent of printing, in the pos...

What is Photography For?

05 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Social documentary photographer Jim Mortram and photographer and publisher Craig Atkinson ponder why should we care about photography? Why take photog...

Making wood type then and now

19 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Thomas Gravemaker explores the history of wood type printing as well as his own recent manufacture using digital design and a CNC router. Wood type ha...

Modern Times: Photography in Britain 1800–1850

06 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Geoffrey Batchen explores the first fifty years of photography in Britain. The announcement of photography’s invention in January 1839, first in Par...

ARCHiOX - Seeing the Unseen in Bodleian Collections

17 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A research collaboration between the Bodleian Libraries and the Factum Foundation The Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Conservation is a no...

Unveiling the invisible belt: the shareholders of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, 1897–1901

14 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Drawing on a detailed survey of shareholders of the Marconi in 1897 and 1900, this lecture will trace an overall profile of the diverse categories of ...

Making machines: Mary Shelley and Ada Lovelace

21 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Join our experts in conversation as they consider the thinking of two great 19th century women writers exploring the boundary between human and machin...

Meet the pigments: the art and science of early English decoration

24 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Discover how cutting-edge scientific techniques are transforming our understanding of medieval manuscripts, and how book production began to recover u...

North Sea Crossings: inside the exhibition

14 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Discover the treasures that illustrate how exchanges between England and the Netherlands have shaped literature, book production and institutions such...

Meet the Manuscripts: the Renaissance reform of the book

14 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Meet the Maps: Unconventional Views of Oxford

05 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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...

MS Ashmole 1504

04 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

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 ...

Meet the Manuscripts: Correcting Christmas Carols

14 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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 Midd...

Meet the Manuscripts: Uncomfortable English Manuscripts

08 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this lecture, we look at some beautiful, austere, and distinctively uncomfortable manuscripts and learn how the Middle Ages shaped the way we read ...

Meet the Manuscripts: Meet the Fragments

20 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Exploring their physical function in manuscripts – and the bad things that can happen when they are removed for study – as well as showing what th...

Roots to Seeds: the evolution of plant science

17 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Join Professor Stephen Harris (Curator of Roots to Seeds at the Bodleian Library) and Dr Chris Thorogood, (Oxford Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretu...

Body of evidence

17 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this online event, Ana Paula Cordeiro, the creator of Body of Evidence, speaks from the workshop in New York City where she produced it. She will b...

Singing together; apart: drama and medieval chant

17 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As both audience members and actors, you will learn to sing the classic Easter sequence hymn 'Victimae paschali laudes' ('Praises to the paschal victi...

Meet the Manuscripts: hidden treasures of medieval illumination

28 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew Holford, Tolkien Curator of Medieval Manuscripts, and Martin Kauffmann, Head of Early and Rare Collections, in conversation about the artists,...

Singing Together; Apart: Gregorian Chant Workshop for Candlemas

29 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Building on the repertoire from our previous workshop, we will add further pieces for Candlemas where everybody is invited to join in by singing the c...

Meet the Manuscripts: judging a book by its cover

29 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The covers can tell us as much about a book as its contents. This workshop explores the secrets which bookbindings reveal about the uses and histories...

Singing Together; Apart: Gregorian Chant Workshop – Song of Simeon

15 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this online choir workshop you will learn to sing along with a simple voice part from the Candlemas Nunc Dimittis and see the 15th-century manuscri...

Trinity: A Real Life Spy Story

29 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Frank Close tells the story of Klaus Fuchs and the Bodleian Library. Trinity was the codename for the test explosion of the atomic bomb in New Mexico ...

Pieces of Gold: Piecing together a mutilated Timurid masterpiece

24 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Shiva Mihan, Harvard Art Museums and Bahari Visiting Fellow at the Bodleian Libraries, gives a talk on her work in Persian arts. Manuscripts produced ...

Accumulating narrative: Meaning and mutation in letterpress printing

23 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

David Armes (Red Plate Press), the Bodleian’s Printer in Residence 2019-20, describes artists and ideas that influence his work, asking how meaning ...

Islamic manuscripts and bindings as a window on East-West relations

20 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The making, use and trade of manuscripts was an important part of Islamic culture, the technical developments influenced the making of books in the we...

2020 Colin Ford Lecture

14 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Larry Schaaf delivers the 2020 Colin Ford Lecture, providing a fascinating insight into his work on The William Henry Fox Talbot Catalogue R...

Defying Hitler: The White Rose Resistance Group

25 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Alexandra Lloyd, Lecturer in German, Magdalen College and St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford, gives a talk on the White Rose Resistance Group. I...

Leonardo's thoughts on mechanics and useful inventions

12 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

6,000 surviving notes and drawings reveal Leonardo da Vinci’s way of thinking. This talk focuses on Leonardo’s second book, On Mechanics, and expl...

Particles in space

12 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Join Dr Donal Hill for a tour of the invisible, as he describes how particle detectors measure 3D information to help uncover the secrets of tiny fund...

Getting to the heart of cardiac disease: a multi-disciplinary effort to image the heart in 3D

12 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Discover how researchers are using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to acquire images that show how the heart works on both a whole organ and cellular...

Plans and elevation: the development of architectural drawings

12 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Karl Kinsella introduces a 12th-century manuscript which explores the mystical visions of the prophet Ezekiel and contains some of the earliest arc...

Parallel lines down the centuries

12 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

For 21 centuries, mathematicians worried about a fundamental assumption made by Euclid of Alexandria: that parallel lines must meet at infinity. Coul...

Decay and closure of libraries - The Lyell Lectures 2019 (6)

16 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Richard Sharpe, Lyell Reader in Bibliography 2018-2019 gives the sixth and final lecture in the 2019 Lyell series. Part of the series; Libra...

Growth, competition, stability, loss, renewal - The Lyell Lectures 2019 (5)

14 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Richard Sharpe, Lyell Reader in Bibliography 2018-2019 gives the fifth lecture inthe 2019 Lyell series. Part of the lecture series; Librarie...

Turnover in libraries - The Lyell Lectures 2019 (4)

09 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Richard Sharpe, Lyell Reader in Bibliography 2018-2019 gives the fourth lecture in the 2019 Lyell series. Part of the series; Libraries and ...

Library books and personal books - The Lyell Lectures 2019 (3)

07 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Richard Sharpe, Lyell Reader in Bibliography 2018-2019, gives the third lecture in the 2019 Lyell series. Part of the lecture series; Librar...

English medieval library catalogues - The Lyell Lectures 2019 (2)

02 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Richard Sharpe, Lyell Reader in Bibliography 2018-2019 gives the second lecture in the 2019 Lyell series. Part of the series; Libraries and ...

Medieval libraries of Great Britain - The Lyell Lectures 2019 (1)

30 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Richard Sharpe, Lyell Reader in Bibliography 2018-2019, gives the first of the 2019 Lyell lecture series. Part of the lecture series; Librar...

The conservation of Japanese collections at Bodleian Libraries

11 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Learn about the conservation of unique Japanese items such as Naraehon, a Japanese genre of lavishly-illustrated literature from the fifteenth-eightee...

Thinking 3D: Byrne-Bussey Marconi Lecture

05 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Thinking 3D is an interdisciplinary exploration of the concept of three-dimensionality and its impact on the arts and sciences, co-investigated by Dr ...

Visual metre and rhythm: the function of movable devices in books

12 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A lecture for the Oxford Bibliographical Society and the Bodleian Centre for the Study of the Book, by Bodleian Printer in Residence, 2018, Emily Mart...

Masterclass: the Frankenstein notebooks at the Bodleian Libraries

29 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

An examination of the notebooks in which Mary Shelley drafted Frankenstein. These two notebooks, one purchased probably in Geneva, the second in Engla...

Mythopoeia: myth-creation and Middle-earth

25 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

A celebration of Tolkien and his creations, with special guests Dame Marina Warner, Prof Verlyn Flieger and Dr Dimitra Fimi. The panel of guests will ...

Royal Bank of Canada Foundation Lecture: Reading French in 15th-century England

03 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Julia Mattison (RBC Foundation-Bodleian Visiting Fellow at the Bodleian Libraries until 19 December 2018) gives a lecture on reading french in 15th ce...

Marconi lecture 2018: Imperial Wave: how empire shaped the network of wireless in South Asia at the turn of the twentieth century

03 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Medha Saxena (Delhi, and Byrne Bussey Marconi Fellow), gives the 2018 annual Marconi lecture.

Old Norse

31 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Eleanor Parker, Lecturer in Medieval English Literature, Brasenose College, Oxford, gives the fifth and final talk in the Tolkien: The Maker of Middle...

Old English

31 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Atherton, Senior Lecturer in English, Regent's Park College, Oxford, gives the fourth talk in the Tolkien: The Maker of Middle Earth lecture seri...

Gothic

31 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth Solopova, Lecturer in English Literature, Christ Church, Oxford. Tolkien wrote that he was 'fascinated' with the 'beautiful' Gothic language...

Medieval Welsh

31 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Tolkien once termed Welsh 'the elder language of the men of Britain'; this talk explores how the sounds and grammar of Welsh captured Tolkien's imagin...

Middle English

31 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

This lecture is on Tolkien and middle english. Professor Carolyne Larrington, Tutorial Fellow in English Literature, St John's College, Oxford gives t...

Why Read Frankenstein in 2018?

22 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Two hundred years after it was first published, Nick Groom explains the abiding appeal and extraordinary contemporary relevance of Mary Shelley’s no...

Tolkien's turning point: Tolkien and the history of tongues

19 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Tom Shippey's lecture will move from the detail to the (eventual) design of Tolkien's languages, and even the philosophical issues embedded in Tolkien...

The Lyell Lectures 2018: Book Ownership in Stuart England: 'Cultures of collecting in the 17th century'

11 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

David Pearson, Lyell Reader in Bibliography 2017-18 and Research Fellow, Institute of English Studies, University of London gives the fifth and final ...

The Lyell Lectures 2018: Book Ownership in Stuart England: 'Books for the common man'

11 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

David Pearson, Lyell Reader in Bibliography 2017-18 and Research Fellow, Institute of English Studies, University of London gives the fourth Lyell lec...

The Lyell Lectures 2018: Book Ownership in Stuart England: 'Women and books in the 17th century'

11 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

David Pearson, Lyell Reader in Bibliography 2017-18 and Research Fellow, Institute of English Studies, University of London gives the third Lyell lect...

The Lyell Lectures 2018: Book Ownership in Stuart England: 'Books for use and books for show'

11 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

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

The Lyell Lectures 2018: Book Ownership in Stuart England: 'Books for use and books for show'

11 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

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

The Lyell Lectures 2018: Book Ownership in Stuart England: 'Setting the scene: Trends and patterns'

11 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

David Pearson, Lyell Reader in Bibliography 2017-18 and Research Fellow, Institute of English Studies, University of London, gives the first of the 20...

What happened to wireless?

19 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Jacob Ward, Bodleian Libraries Byrne-Bussey Marconi Fellow, Department of Science and Technology Studies, UCL, gives the 2018 Marconi lecture. The ter...

Printing a Line at the Bodleian Weston Library Printing Press

13 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

This one-off print comprised text and drawing by artist and writer Tamarin Norwood, concluding her year-long residency at Spike Island Bristol, The Bo...

Making Third Stream Books in the Post-digital Age

08 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Russell Maret talks about the development of the primary themes of his artist's books - alphabet design, colour printing, and geometric form, also the...

Researching the Impeachment and Trial of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford

10 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

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

Tanakh and textuality

15 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Visiting researcher Dr Rachel Wamsley discusses the renowned Oppenheimer Collection, whose holdings shed light on the printing house as a site of cult...

Marconi and media history

14 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Noah Arceneaux, Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Media Studies, San Diego State University, Byrne-Bussey Marconi Visiting Fellow 2016-...

Rumi: his life, work, and poetry

24 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Research business and the shortwave beam: Marconi and the uses of wireless in postwar years

03 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Giovanni Paoloni discusses the influence of the development of the shortwave beam technology on Marconi and the Marconi Company Marconi's wireless rev...

Marconi's early Latin projects over the South-Atlantic

03 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Ines Queiroz explores how technical constraints have shaped strategies for wireless networks development Marconi's wireless revolution, the Bodleian's...

Performing Shakespeare: then and now

02 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Jonathan Lloyd and Tiffany Stern, discuss performing Shakespeare in the past and now Accompanied by actors to help illustrate their points, Jonathan L...

Shakespeare and the Victorians

19 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Professor of English Literature, Oxford, gives a talk for Shakespeare Oxford 2016 series. When the tercentenary of Shakespea...

Elite Folktales: An Exquisite Sixteenth-Century Persian Illustrated Manuscript in the Bodleian Library's Ouseley Collection

02 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

A conversation with Dr Nasrin Askari, Bahari Visiting Fellow in the Persian Arts of the Book 2016 and Alasdair Watson, Bahari Curator of Persian Colle...

Launch of the 15th Century Booktrade

21 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Cristina Dondi and her colleagues launch the 15th Century Booktrade. Books printed between 1450 (the year of Gutenberg’s invention of modern printi...

Brown's landscapes in the twenty-first century

21 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Join the head gardeners of Stowe and Compton Verney to explore the challenges, changes and rewards of protecting and preserving Capability Brown's lan...

Life, death and astrology in Shakespeare's England

30 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Lauren Kassell (Reader in the History of Science and Medicine, Cambridge) gives a talk for the Bodleian libraries. If the star-crossed lovers Romeo an...

Eloquence vault mieulx que force

30 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Vernacular Translations of Plutarch and Political Argument in Renaissance France

Memorialising Shakespeare: The First Folio and other elegies

02 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Emma Smith (Professor of English Literature, Oxford), gives a talk on Shakespeare memorials. Ben Jonson wrote in 1623 that Shakespeare 'art a Monime...

Venus and Adonis

20 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Katherine Duncan Jones, Senior Research Fellow, Somerville College, gives a talk on Shakespeare's poem, Venus and Adonis. In 1592-93, with L...

Donne to Death

13 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Peter McCullough, Professor of English, University of Oxford, gives a talk on John Donne. John Donne's sermon, Death's duell, was part of an early Stu...

Everyday death in Shakespeare's England

05 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

This podcast talks about accidental deaths and the hazards of everyday life in Shakespeare's day Coroners' inquest reports into accidental deaths tell...

The Magic of Shakespeare

03 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

This lecture will celebrate Shakespeare's immortality on the exact 400th anniversary of his burial. It will begin from Theseus' famous speech in A Mid...

Books for mind and community in 12th-century Oxford and Cirencester

04 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In this talk Andrew Dunning (Royal Bank of Canada Foundation Fellow) traces the development of the work of Alexander Neckam, one of the earliest known...

The Prayer-Book of Abbess Odilia

22 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Abbess Baerbel Goercke, Mariensee, delivers a talk for the Medingen Manuscripts Masterclass.

Musical Notation

22 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Ulrike Hascher-Burger, Utrecht University, delivers a talk for the Medingen Manuscripts Masterclass.

The Incunable Traces

22 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Alan Coates, Rare Books Assistant Librarian, Bodleain, delivers a talk for the Medingen Manuscripts Masterclass.

Cistercian Punctuation

22 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Nigel F. Palmer, Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford, delivers a talk for the Medingen Manuscripts Masterclass.

The Plaque in the Psalter and the Bindings

04 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Andrew Honey, Book Conservator (Research and Teaching), University of Oxford, delivers a talk for the Medingen Manuscripts Masterclass.