Unlocking Archives talk TT18
Against ‘Iberic Crudity’:
Balliol MS 238E, Bodleian MS Douce 204,
and Laurentius Dyamas
Anna Espínola Lynn, MSt in History of Art and Visual Culture (Wadham College, Oxford), will be speaking on the transmission of style in fifteenth-century Catalan manuscript production.
All welcome! Feel free to bring your lunch. The talk will last about half an hour, to allow time for questions and discussion afterwards, and a closer look at the Balliol manuscript discussed.
Online images of Balliol MS 238E and of Bodleian MS Douce 204
Unlocking Archives is an interdisciplinary graduate seminar series of illustrated lunchtime talks about current research in Balliol College’s historic collections: archives, manuscripts and early printed books, and the connections between them.
Talks take place at 1pm in Balliol’s Historic Collections Centre in St Cross Church, Holywell. St Cross is next door to Holywell Manor and across the road from the English & Law faculties on Manor Road; directions http://archives.balliol.ox.ac.uk/Services/visit.asp#f.
Questions? anna.sander@balliol.ox.ac.uk.
Unlocking Archives MT16 (2)
Unlocking Archives is an interdisciplinary graduate seminar series of illustrated lunchtime talks about current research in Balliol College’s historic collections: archives, manuscripts and early printed books, and the connections between them.
MS455-06r-200dpi
Tuesday 29 November (MT8), 1-2pm, Prof. Elliott Horowitz (Oliver Smithies Visiting Fellow 2014-15) on this term’s exhibition, ‘Look to the rock from which you were hewn’: Hebraica and Judaica at Balliol College.
All welcome! Feel free to bring your lunch. The talks will last about half an hour, to allow time for questions and discussion afterwards, and a closer look at some of the Balliol special collections material discussed. St Cross is next door to Holywell Manor; see ‘Finding Us’ at http://archives.balliol.ox.ac.uk/Services/visit.asp#f
Unlocking Archives MT16 (1)
Unlocking Archives is an interdisciplinary graduate seminar series of illustrated lunchtime talks about current research in Balliol College’s historic collections: archives, manuscripts and early printed books, and the connections between them.
Wednesday 16 November (MT6), 1-2pm, Prof. Matthew Balensuela (Depauw), ‘The Music Theory Booklet Balliol 173A ff. 74r–81v: Copying and Content of an Early Medieval Theory Compendium’
Balliol MS 173A is a codex created in the fifteenth century that combines selections of Aristotle (ff. 1-73) with a collection of early music theory (ff. 74‑119). The first music fascicle, ff. 74-81, stands apart from the rest of the music portion (works of Guido and a tonary) in several ways: it has handwriting different from the rest of the codex; it ends with a blank verso that could have served as the back cover of a small booklet; and it features elaborate illustrations found nowhere else in the collection.
Through an analysis of the codicological and orthographical evidence and the contents, I argue that Balliol 173A, ff. 74–81 was originally a self-standing booklet, originally copied around the twelfth century and that one of the main purposes for creating such a booklet was not merely to perpetuate the contents (works by Cassiodorus, Isidore, and Aurélien of Réôme), but also to teach scribes musical terminology and to create a brief reference work of basic musical ideas and concepts. Scribes represent an audience for music theory texts unstudied in the history of music theory. The creators and users of this booklet may not have been interested in learning music theory, nor in performing or composing music. Rather, this booklet may demonstrate how scribes untrained in music learned the basic meanings of the words they were copying and how to lay out pages that combine both text and examples.
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All welcome! Feel free to bring your lunch. The talk will last about half an hour, to allow time for questions and discussion afterwards, and a closer look at some of the Balliol special collections material discussed. St Cross is next door to Holywell Manor; see ‘Finding Us’ at http://archives.balliol.ox.ac.uk/Services/visit.asp#f
display from the college archives
A small display in Balliol’s Historic Collections Centre at St Cross Church, Holywell, for the Friends of Reading Abbey, 8 July 2015
scan of seal dorse presented with reading copy of deed and transcript adapted slightly from Salter
display case with original deed and supporting facsimiles and transcript
original deed was flattened long ago – conservators probably wouldn’t do this now, but it does make it easier to display
with much-magnified scan print of seal face – beautiful and in pretty good shape
recto of document, face of seal
detailed scan of seal face
verso of document, with endorsements, and seal
black and white contrast-tweaked crop of the document for easier reading of the text
Transcription:
Oxford, Balliol College Archives D6.21 Gifts by the abbot of Reading towards the building of the chapel of St Katherine.
1 January 1327/8. [Salter Oxford Deeds of Balliol College 584, adapted slightly]
1 Nouerint uniuersi per presentes quod dominus Nicholaus de Quappelade dei gracia Abbas Radyng’ liberauit sco
2 laribus domus de Balliolo in Oxonia viginti libras sterlingorum pro anima Ade le Poleter burgensis Radyng’
3 ad fabricam capelle sancte Katerine eiusdem domus. Item dedit predictus Abbas prefatis scolaribus decem marcas
4 argenti ad fabricam capelle predicte quas ab eodem Abbate per duo scripta obligatoria prius ex mutuo receperunt.
5 Dedit eciam predictus Abbas prefatis scolaribus unam fenestram vitream precii decem librarum & amplius
6 pro capella supradicta. Summa tocius xxxvj libras xiij s. iiij d. Item dedit eis meremium, lathes, & alia minuta
7 cum cariageo eorundem, que hic in specie non numerantur. In cuius rei testimonium tam predictus Abbas quam predicti
8 scolares presenti intenture alternatim sigilla sua apposuerunt. Hijs testibus magistro Thoma Othom tunc
9 Cancellario Uniuersitatis Oxon’, magistro Nicholao de Luceby tunc custode predicte domus, magistro Nicholao de
10 Tyngewyk’ & custode sigilli communis predictorum scholarium & multis alijs. Et remanebit una pars huius
11 indenture penes predictos scolares & alia pars penes custodem altaris capelle beate Marie virginis infra
12 Abbathiam Radyng’. Dat’ apud Radyng’ die veneris in festo Circumcisionis domini Anno domini millesimo
13 Tricentesimo vicesimo septimo.
Red seal 2.5 in x 1.75 in, bishop [?abbot] in mitre and chasuble, with book and pastoral staff. Legend: S’ NICHI’ DEI GRA… [?EPISCOPI] …ILCE.SIS.
A number of other documents from early in the college’s history were also on display, and visitors were interested in the history of the building and the other print and manuscript special collections kept as St Cross as well as the college’s administrative records. Our student intern explained his summer research project, working on another part of the college archives: the library’s 17th century book borrowing registers. Stay tuned here for some of his findings later in the summer…
#DIYdigitization
Do you have photos of manuscripts held in Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries? now you can make them available to other researchers via their Special Collections #DIYdigitization group: have a look! https://www.flickr.com/groups/bodspecialcollections
There are instructions for naming/shelfmarking/tagging your uploads so others can find them, and so photos of the same ms from different contributors can find each other.
Balliol researchers are encouraged to do the same https://www.flickr.com/photos/balliolarchivist/collections/72157631849081491/
Opening access to archives and manuscripts, one click at a time…
Unlocking Archives talks, Hilary Term 2015
1) Professor Stephen F. Brown, Boston College: Lessons Learned from Balliol Commentaries on Peter Lombard’s Sentences. Monday 23 February 2015 (HT week 6), 1-2 pm
Stephen Brown is Professor of Theology and Director of the Institute of Medieval Philosophy and Theology at Boston College (Massachusetts, USA), and is an Oliver Smithies Lecturer at Balliol for Hilary Term 2015. Stephen has published monographs on William of Ockham, St. Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas, and many of his scholarly articles include Latin text editions based on Balliol College manuscripts.
Prof. Brown’s talk will examine academic discussion of Peter Lombard’s Sentences in the theological community of fourteenth-century Oxford, with reference to and illustrations from Balliol manuscripts.
2) Emily Freeman, Ruskin College of Fine Art: John Evelyn’s Trees: the art of Sylva. Friday 6 March (HT week 7), 1-2 pm
Emily is a second year undergraduate at the Ruskin School of Fine Art and lover of foliage and shrubbery. Her talk will examine the different illustration schemes that have accompanied Evelyn’s Sylva, and discuss the influence of historic illustration and special collections on her own artistic practice.
All welcome! All talks are held at Balliol Historic Collections Centre, St Cross Church, Manor Road. Feel free to bring your lunch. The talks will last about half an hour, to allow time for questions and discussion afterwards, and a closer look at some of the Balliol special collections material discussed.
Unlocking Archives 8
Lunchtime talk: Unlocking Archives
– current research in Balliol College’s special collections –
The Index of Images in Oxford College Libraries:
an overview of the Project
Dr Lynda Dennison
Friday 22 November (Oxford MT week 6), 1-2 pm
Balliol Historic Collections Centre
St Cross Church, Manor Road
* all welcome *
A survey of the scope and method of the project, which aims to compile an index of images in Oxford College Libraries from the time of Chaucer to Henry VIII, illustrated with special reference to the medieval manuscripts collection at Balliol College.
For the past six years Lynda Dennison has been a researcher for the Index of images in English manuscripts from the time of Chaucer to Henry VIII, c.1380-c. 1509, general editor Kathleen Scorr, and has lectured in the History of Art at the Oxford University Department of Continuing Education and the Oxford Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.
Feel free to bring your lunch. The talk will last no more than half an hour, to allow time for questions and discussion afterwards, and a closer look at some of the Balliol manuscripts discussed.
manuscripts produced:
- 037
- 080
- 081
- 092
- 093
- 101
- 219
- 219
- 228
- 235
- 264
- 286
- 290
Unlocking Archives 7
Unlocking Archives :
a series of lunchtime talks about current research
in Balliol College’s special collections
The Archaeology of the Book of Kells
Dr Ian Mertling-Blake
Friday 1 November (Oxford MT week 3) 1 pm
A thirty-minute minute illustrated introduction to decorative motifs adapted by illustrators of the Book of Kells, suggesting possible megalithic, prehistoric, early historic origins, that they draw on disparate artistic traditions and imitate metalworking and enamelling techniques exemplified by masterpieces like The Tara Brooch, The Alfred Jewell, Ardagh Chalice etc. There will be an opportunity to examine a copy of splendidly accurate full-colour reproduction published by Faksimile Verlag, Lucern for Trinity College Dublin in1990.
The Scottish poet Ian Blake (Balliol ‘65) graduate of TCD, whose doctoral thesis was supervised by the late Dame Kathleen Kenyon, directed excavations at sites he discovered on the west shore of the Dead Sea until, after the ’67Arab-Israeli War, the UN designated the area ‘Disputed Territory’ which it remains.
All welcome! Feel free to bring your lunch.
The talks will last about half an hour, to allow time for questions and discussion afterwards and a closer look at some of the Balliol MSS discussed.
All Unlocking Archives talks take place at Balliol’s Historic Collections Centre, St Cross Church, Manor Road OX1 3UH (next door to Holywell Manor). Map & directions
Unlocking Archives 6
Lunchtime talk: Unlocking Archives
a new series about current research in Balliol College’s special collections
MSS 260 & 353:
two John Prise manuscripts at Balliol
Prof Ceri Davies, Emeritus Professor,
Swansea University
Wednesday 23 October, 1-2 pm
Balliol Historic Collections Centre
St Cross Church, Manor Road
* all welcome *
Sir John Prise (1501/2-1555), scholar, monastic visitor and Tudor administrator, is connected to two manuscripts from Balliol’s bequest by the 18th century book collector George Coningesby. MS 353 contains Prise’s Commonplace Book and MS 260 contains the text of his Historiae Britannicae Defensio (posthumously published in 1573), an edition of which Professor Davies is preparing.
Ceri Davies is Emeritus Professor of Classics at Swansea University. He was Visiting Fellow at Magdalen College, 2008-9.
Feel free to bring your lunch. The talk will last no more than half an hour, to allow time for questions and discussion afterwards, and a closer look at some of the Balliol MSS discussed.
Unlocking Archives – Michaelmas Term schedule
Forthcoming talks in the Unlocking Archives series:
1) Wednesday 23 October 1pm
Prof Ceri Davies
on Balliol MS 260, a manuscript copy of Sir John Prise’s Historiae Brytannicae Defensio (first published 1573)
2) Friday 1 November 1pm
Dr Ian Mertling-Blake
on the archaeology of the Book of Kells, of which Balliol has recently been given a full facsimile
3) Friday 22 November 1pm
Dr Lynda Dennison
on her research for an index of images in later-medieval English MSS in Oxford college collections
Further details TBA
All welcome! Feel free to bring your lunch. The talks will last about half an hour, to allow time for questions and discussion afterwards and a closer look at some of the Balliol MSS discussed.
These three talks will complete our Unlocking Archives series of 8 for 2013 – more to come in the new year!
St Cross Church, Manor Road, Oxford: Directions
Unlocking Archives 5
Lunchtime talk: Unlocking Archives
a new series for 2013 about research in Balliol College’s special collections
Harold Nicolson’s Diaries:
why they are important to the historian
Dr Ross McKibbin, Senior Research Fellow,
St John’s College
Thursday 25 July, 1-2 pm
Balliol Historic Collections Centre
* all welcome *
Dr McKibbin was Tutor in History at St John’s 1972-2005 and is now a senior research fellow at St John’s. His research interests are in late nineteenth and twentieth century British history. The diaries of Harold Nicolson (1886-1968) are among the most frequently and thoroughly consulted of Balliol’s modern personal papers collections.
Feel free to bring your lunch. The talk will last no more than half an hour, to allow time for questions and discussion afterwards, and a closer look at some of the Balliol MSS discussed.
Lunchtime Talk: Unlocking Archives 4
Lunchtime talk: Unlocking Archives
a new series about research in Balliol College’s special collections
Living with the Jowett Papers
Dr Robin Darwall-Smith
Archivist, Magdalen & University Colleges
Activity in the archives does not lessen as the end of term draws near, and the fourth talk in our new Unlocking Archives series about research in Balliol’s special collections is nearly upon us. This time we’ll hear from an archivist about the sometimes-surprising process of cataloguing a large collection of 19th century personal papers. I do hope some of you will be able to make it for an expert discussion of one of our most interesting collections – please share the announcement. NB this month’s talk is on a Thursday lunchtime rather than the usual Friday.
Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893, Master of Balliol 1870-93) is best known as a translator of Plato into English and an innovative and influential Master of Balliol. His papers are one of the most-consulted of Balliol’s manuscript collections – both because of their content and because they are our best-catalogued collection. They are especially valued by researchers for their vast store of correspondence and documentation of major administrative changes in the late 19th-century college and wider University. Few researchers, however, have Robin Darwall-Smith’s depth of knowledge of what is revealed in the papers about Jowett himself. Come along next Thursday and find out about the man behind the legend!
Thursday 20 June, 1-2 pm
Balliol Historic Collections Centre
St Cross Church, Manor Road
* all welcome *
Robin Darwall-Smith read Classics at Univ. as an undergraduate and a postgraduate, before training as an archivist at the University of Liverpool. His first job after qualifying was to catalogue the papers of Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893, Master of Balliol 1870-93) at Balliol. After spending some years working at Oxfordshire Record Office, he has been Archivist of University College and of Magdalen College since 1993 and 1996 respectively.
Feel free to bring your lunch. The talk will last no more than half an hour, to allow time for questions and discussion afterwards, and a closer look at some of the Balliol MSS discussed.
Lunchtime Talk:Unlocking Archives 3
announcing the third talk in our series about research in Balliol College’s special collections
Tales of the Unexpected: Mont Blanc to Everest
Dr Stephen Golding, University College
Friday 24 May, 1-2 pm
Balliol Historic Collections Centre
St Cross Church, Manor Road
* all welcome *
While researching a history of the ‘Chalet des Anglais’ near Mont Blanc, scene of a century of Oxford student reading parties, Dr Golding has made unexpected discoveries about the pioneer mountaineer George Mallory who died on Everest in 1924, adding a new dimension to what is known of this legendary climber’s life.
Feel free to bring your lunch. The talk will last no more than half an hour, to allow time for questions and discussion afterwards, and a closer look at some of the Balliol MSS discussed.
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27 May update: Many thanks to Dr Golding for a fascinating paper! It will be presented to another audience at a later date, and, we hope, the new research (and photographs) will be published as well, so no summary here. Stay tuned!
Lunchtime talk: Unlocking the Archives 2
Announcing the second talk in our new series about research in Balliol’s special collections:
John Bray, Limner-Binder, and Three Sequences of Manuscripts Made in Oxford (1450-84)
Holly James-Maddocks, University of York
This paper identifies the hand of one Oxford-based illuminator (John Bray, d.1493) in three sequences of manuscripts housed today in Balliol, Merton, and Exeter Colleges. His collaboration with four London illuminators for their production prompts an assessment of the evidence for peripatetic book artisans and for the reliance of the Oxford trade on the supply of London labour.
Holly James-Maddocks is a PhD student at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, completing the thesis ‘Collaborative Book Production: Scribes and Illuminators in Fifteenth-Century London’. She will continue her studies of the London book trade as the Katharine F. Pantzer Jr. Fellow in Descriptive Bibliography at Harvard University’s Houghton Library in 2013-14.
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When: Friday 26 April, 1-2 pm
Where: Balliol Historic Collections Centre, St Cross Church, Manor Road (next to Holywell Manor).
Who: all welcome
Feel free to bring your lunch. The talk will last no more than half an hour, to allow time for questions and discussion afterwards, and a closer look at some of the Balliol MSS discussed.
Unlocking the Archives is a new series of talks opening up the college’s archives and manuscripts to a wider audience and future researchers, given by scholars from Oxford and around the world about their work on material from Balliol’s special collections.
More Unlocking Archives dates for your calendars:
- 24 May: Dr Stephen Golding (Univ, Radiology) on researching the first history of the ‘Chalet des Anglais’
- 20 June: Dr Robin Darwall-Smith (archivist, Magdalen & Univ) on cataloguing the papers of Benjamin Jowett at Balliol
= = = = = = = =
2 April update: Many thanks to Holly for a fascinating paper! It will be presented to another audience at a later date, and, we hope, the new research (and perhaps photographs) will be published as well, so no summary here. Stay tuned!
Lunchtime talk: Unlocking the Archives
Balliol’s new Historic Collections Centre at St Cross Church opened in October 2011; since then, more than 150 academic researchers and more than 2000 visitors have toured the building and consulted the collections. But what’s in there? How can you get a look at it? How did these archives end up at Balliol? and what value do they have for researchers?
A new series of talks by scholars from Oxford and around the world, about their work on material from Balliol’s special collections, is opening up the college’s archives and manuscripts to a wider audience. For this first presentation in the series, the college archivist and curator of manuscripts, Anna Sander, will be introducing three of Balliol’s large 18th and 19th century diplomatic and political collections, the Urquhart, Mallet and Morier Papers, with illustrations and original documents.
Feel free to bring your lunch. The talk will last no more than half an hour, to allow time for questions and discussion afterwards, and a closer look at some items from the collections.
Balliol College Archives & Manuscripts 