We are pleased to announce the seminars for Hilary Term 2026. The seminars are all held via Zoom on Thursdays at 5 p.m. GMT. If you are planning to attend a seminar this term, please register using this form. For each seminar, those who have registered will receive an email with the Zoom invitation and any further materials a couple of days before the seminar. If you have any questions, please send an email to Joe Mason at all.souls.music.seminars@gmail.com; this address is the main point of contact for the seminars. We look forward to an exciting series and hope to see many of you there.
Margaret Bent (Convener, All Souls College)
29 January 2026, 5pm–7pm GMT: Presenter: Kévin Roger (University of Lorraine) Title: Latin Motets and Literary Networks in the Late Middle Ages: Intertextuality, Rhetoric, and Digital Reading Discussants: Yolanda Plumley (University of Exeter) and Karl Kügle (Universities of Oxford and Utrecht)
Abstract: Latin motets of the 14th and early 15th centuries preserve one of the most complex bodies of lyric poetry from the Late Middle Ages. While vernacular art was flourishing, these pluritextual works maintained a dense, erudite, and allusive Latin that has long hindered scholarly interpretation. Because their meaning is often obscure, research has traditionally focused on musical structure rather than on the literary strategies that shape the motet as a poetic object.
This paper investigates the modes of textual invention in Latin motets by analysing their intertextual mechanisms, rhetorical organisation, and broader literary framework. It considers the major French sources and examines how composers drew on classical, biblical, and patristic materials, as well as on florilegia and mnemonic practices. Rather than merely identifying quotations, this research seeks to characterise different forms of borrowing (citation, allusion, discursive resonance) and to understand how they evolve across the corpus.
Digital methods play a central role: TEI encoding enables fine-grained annotation of stylistic features and standardisation of data, while NLP approaches, including LatinBERT, assist in detecting textual reuse and semantic patterns at scale. These tools complement traditional expertise, revealing previously unknown intertextual links and restoring the literary richness of this challenging repertoire.
26 February, 5pm–7pm GMT Andrew Kirkman (University of Birmingham) Title: Made to measure or prêt à chanter? The Court of Wilhelm IV and the Later Alamire Manuscripts Discussants: Thomas Schmidt (University of Manchester) and Zoe Saunders (Independent scholar)
Abstract: The Alamire codices have traditionally been seen as diplomatic gifts, or at the very least commissions from magnates and super-rich aficionados. This article argues that for most of the later, paper codices at least, the sequence happened in reverse: in other words they comprised workshop material that was first produced and then sold once buyers could be found. The same conclusion prompts also a review of the construction of some of the more elegant, parchment sources, and the proposal that the ‘bespoke’ aspects of such codices may have extended no further than their opening—and hence most immediately visible—pages.
12 March, 5pm–7pm GMT Presenters: Elisabeth Giselbrecht, Louisa Hunter-Bradley and Katie McKeogh (King’s College London) Title: No two books are the same. Interactions with early printed music and the people behind them
Abstract: The DORMEME project investigates how early modern owners, readers, and users engaged with printed polyphonic music books, focusing on 1500–1545, when music printing introduced new modes of circulation alongside manuscript and oral transmission. This technological shift expanded and reshaped how individuals interacted with music books—as tools for performance and teaching, as collectable objects, and as sites of confessional negotiation. Our project undertakes a copy-based survey of surviving printed polyphonic books across European and North American collections, documenting marks of use and developing case studies that reveal how these books were used, altered, and understood.
This paper presents the project’s first synthetic results. We outline a taxonomy of interventions—textual, musical, material, and paratextual—and consider them in relation to user motivations such as correction, performance facilitation, confessional adaptation, education, personalisation, and proof-reading. Drawing on detailed examples, we examine textual changes in religious motets, musical annotations including crosses, numbers, custodes, and barline-like dashes, and patterns of personalisation that illuminate different types of owners and users. We also address the distinctive role of the proof-reader as the “first reader,” whose interventions bridge production and use. Together, these findings show how annotations can reshape our understanding of early modern musical practice and book culture.
Change of policy on seminar recording
The seminars have taken place on Thursdays at 5 p.m. UK time for over thirty years. When we moved them to Zoom in 2020 during Covid, it soon became clear that in attracting wide global participation, including expertise not available locally in Oxford, they would continue online into the foreseeable future. Many have indicated how much they value these online but ‘live’ opportunities to share and respond to new work, or just to learn from them. We decided from the start not to make them hybrid (which doesn’t facilitate awareness or interaction between the in-person and online participants), not to make them webinars (where there is no interaction with the audience), and not to record them. The reasons for that were to protect unpublished work (we know who has registered and received any associated materials), and to ensure a sense of occasion and enable participation in real time. Much of that would be lost if people could easily listen in at their convenience. We are receiving increasing requests to record the seminars from those who can never come because of conflicting schedules or unfriendly time zones. We are therefore proposing the following change:
Where a speaker and the invited discussants are happy to do so, we will record the first hour of the seminar;
If the speaker but not the invited discussants are happy to record, only the first half hour may be available;
We will not record the second hour of general discussion, as we do not wish to inhibit that discussion, and would need to secure too many permissions;
This change of policy is intended to serve those whose schedules do not permit them to attend, as well as those who would like to revisit the presentation afterwards. Recordings will not include the general discussion, and may not include the invited discussion. As for the protection of unpublished material: any unauthorised or uncredited ‘borrowing’ can be documented from the availability of the Youtube recording. As not all speakers may want to be recorded, and as it will not be known in advance which seminars will be available afterwards, we still hope to encourage as much attendance in real time as at present.
You can register for the seminar’s YouTube channel here, where any recordings will be uploaded.
All Souls College, OxfordHilary Term, 2023
Led by Dr Margaret Bent (Convenor, All Souls College, Oxford) and Matthew Thomson (University College Dublin)
The seminars are all held via Zoom on Thursdays at 5 p.m. GMT. If you are planning to attend a seminar this term, please register using this form. For each seminar, those who have registered will receive an email with the Zoom invitation and any further materials a couple of days before the seminar. If you have questions, please just send an email to matthew.thomson@ucd.ie.
Seminar programme
Thursday 26 January, 5pm GMT
Julia Craig-McFeely (DIAMM, University of Oxford)
The Sadler Sets of Partbooks and Tudor Music Copying
Discussants: Owen Rees (University of Oxford) and Magnus Williamson (University of Newcastle)
The digital recovery of the Sadler Partbooks has revealed considerably more than simply the notes written on the pages. Surprisingly more in fact. It has led to a re-evaluation of pretty much everything we thought we knew about the books and their inception, and indeed the culture of music copying in England in the mid- to late-16th century. This paper examines the question of who was responsible for copying Bodleian Library Mus. e. 1–5. Some tempting speculations are explored, and some new paradigms proposed.
Thursday 16 February, 5pm GMT
Martin Kirnbauer and the project team Vicentino21: Anne Smith, David Gallagher, Luigi Collarile and Johannes Keller (Schola Cantorum Basiliensis / FHNW)
Soav’ e dolce – Nicola Vicentino’s Intervallic Vision
The musical ideas and visions that Vicentino sets out in his writings L’antica musica ridotta alla moderna prattica (Rome 1555) and the Manifesto for his arciorgano can only be concretely traced on the basis of a few, mostly fragmentary, surviving compositions. However, the research carried out within the framework of the SNSF-funded research project “Vicentino21” (https://www.fhnw.ch/plattformen/vicentino21/), with the aim of creating a digital edition of Vicentino’s treatise, now provides concrete findings. Using the example of the madrigal Soav’ e dolce ardore (III:51, fol. 67), questions concerning Vicentino’s musical visions and the edition will be discussed.
Thursday 9 March, 5pm GMT
Emily Zazulia (University of California at Berkeley)
The Fifteenth-Century Song Mass: Some Challenges
Discussants: Fabrice Fitch (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) and Sean Gallagher (New England Conservatory)
Love songs and the Catholic Mass do not make easy bedfellows. The earthly, amorous, even carnal feelings explored in fifteenth-century chansons seem at odds with the solemnity of Christian observance’s most central rite. Recent scholarship has attempted to bridge this divide, showing how some of these genre-crossing pieces conflate the earthly lady with the Virgin Mary, thereby effacing the divide between sacred and secular. But a substantial body of song masses survives whose source material is decidedly not amenable to this type of interpretation—masses based on songs that are less “My gracious lady is without peer” and more “Hey miller girl, come grind my grain”—or, as we shall see, worse. This paper turns an eye toward these misfit masses, surveying the corpus for a sense of what there is—the Whos, Whats, Wheres, and Whens—as a first step toward the Hows and Whys of these puzzling pieces. One particularly tricky example, the mass variously referred to as Je ne demande and Elle est bien malade, suggests that it may be time to replace prevailing sacred–secular interpretative models with a new approach.
A report by Tamara Klarić, research intern during Michaelmas 2025 with Henrike Lähnemann
The Isar and Thames rivers have more in common than might appear at first glance: both shape the image of the cities through which they flow, and both influence the life that takes place in these cities. Munich residents enjoy walking along or swimming in the Isar or meeting there for coffee. In Oxford, too, a lot of activity takes place on the Thames and Cherwell: numerous college rowing teams train on the water, punting boats regularly pass by walkers, and on the banks you encounter rowing team coaches as well as runners and cyclists. At the same time, not only do almost 1,200 km separate these rivers, but also (university) culture and atmosphere: Munich and Oxford – both are cities renowned, innovative universities, but these are integrated into the cities in very different ways. I have been living in Munich for over two years now and if I had to describe the city, I would probably describe it as modern, dynamic and efficient. In my mind, Oxford is both traditional and vibrant, cosmopolitan and self-contained.
1 My background: “Cultures of Vigilance”
I am employed by the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 1369 “Cultures of Vigilance” at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, which deals with the connection between personal attention and supra-individual goals. Specifically, we understand vigilance as “the coupling of individual attention, firstly with culturally mediated, supra-individual goals and, secondly, with concrete options for action and communication.”[1] The projects, which cover a wide range of disciplines, are divided into three thematic areas: transformations, spaces and techniques. The historical sub-project in which I am writing my dissertation is assigned to the first area. Together with my colleague John Hinderer and under the supervision of Prof. Dr Julia Burkhardt and PD Dr Iryna Klymenko, I am analysing vigilance in pre-modern Benedictine monasteries using the example of the Bursfelde Congregation. While John Hinderer is investigating how the congregations of Santa Giustina di Padova and Bursfelde sought to regulate different areas of monastic life, I am examining the “long” 16th century (approx. 1500 to 1618). My focus is on the recesses of the Bursfelde General Chapters (i.e. the written resolutions of the annual meetings of all abbots) and on the letters of the leading abbots around 1600. After suffering heavy losses due to the processes catalysed by the Reformation and after the Council of Trent, the Bursfelde monasteries found themselves in a phase of restabilisation and reconstruction during this period. The leading abbots of the congregation sought to expand their sphere of influence, which can be clearly seen from the sources: they not only provide information about how the abbots worked to (re)gain individual monasteries, but also about the strategies they developed towards external actors and the measures they took to restore internal unity. When it comes to the question of communication in times of uncertainty, I am particularly interested in the written perception of uncertainty, the resulting discourses in the correspondence, and any adaptation processes within the congregation. Underlying all of this is the vigilance of individuals and their commitment to serving the community.
The letter shown here as an example is part of a dispute between the abbots of the Bursfelde Congregation and the archbishop of Mainz over the restitution of the Johannisberg monastery in the Rheingau (Diocese of Mainz). In this letter to the Apostolic Nuncio from 1600, the Archbishop of Mainz, Wolfgang X von Dalberg (in office 1582–1601) reports on the desolate condition of the monastery. The monastery was destroyed in 1552 and dissolved in 1563 by the former archbishop, Daniel Brendel von Homburg (in office 1555–1582). Since 1596, the abbots of the congregation had been trying to bring the monastery back into their union and had also approached the Curia in this regard. The present letter is a reply from Wolfgang X to the Apostolic Nuncio, in which he defends himself against the accusations of the Bursfelde abbots, justifies the behaviour of his predecessor and describes his own: He attributes the establishment of a secular administration not only to the devastation wrought by the Margrave of Brandenburg, but also to the negligence of the former abbot and the inadequate supervision of the Bursfelde Union. He justifies the abbot’s dismissal and the temporary secular administration of the monastery as necessary measures for debt settlement and the restoration of religious life in accordance with the rules. At the same time, he rejects the accusation of having abused the monastery for his own gain and emphasises that he acted lawfully and in the interests of the monastery. Finally, he asks the Nuncio to inform the Bursfelde Union of this view and to prevent further complaints.
Vigilance is evident in several places in this letter: As the archbishop’s vigilance towards monastic conditions, it can be read as a duty of ecclesiastical authority. According to Wolfgang X, however, its absence is the central cause of monastic decline, as he describes how the abbot failed to fulfil his official duties and how the Bursfelde abbots also failed to adequately fulfil their supervisory duties. At the same time, he emphasises that he is willing to re-examine the situation at the monastery should changes become apparent – vigilance is thus understood as a continuous duty.
At the conference “Zwischen Erneuerungswunsch und Traditionsbewusstsein. Klosterreformen im Alten Reich (1400–1700)” organised by Carolin Gluchowski and Marlon Bäumer in March 2024, I met Henrike Lähnemann and applied for a research internship with her. For the Michaelmas term of 2025, I was then given the opportunity to travel to Oxford for three months through this research internship. This time was not only extremely productive for me professionally, but also personally: as a woman with a non-academic and migrant background, it had long been unimaginable for me to be able to live and work here for three months. Now I am faced with the difficulty of summarising the significance of three intense months in just a few paragraphs. It is a task that is actually impossible. However, with the help of a few photographs, I would like to try to at least come close to doing so:
2 Arrival
I decided to arrive at the end of September, two weeks before the start of the term, so that I would have some time to find my way around the city and gather my first impressions. I am very privileged to be funded by an CRC in Germany: doctoral students are not employed by the departments but are funded by the German Research Foundation and thus by third-party funds. This meant that I didn’t have to apply for scholarships to be able to afford a stay in Oxford but could be funded by my employer. And within the framework of an SFB, stays abroad are possible; in our case, they are even supported as a possible part of our doctoral programme through the integrated Research Training Group:
I was accommodated in a private house in New Hinksey, just south of the city centre. The reason for my decision was that I wanted to build a second, non-university environment for myself, where I could experience as much of everyday life in Oxford as possible. And I don’t think I could have made a better decision: my landlord, who also lives in the house and sublets two rooms to guests, is an incredibly open and friendly person who invited me to barbecues with his family and regular music evenings with his friends. Oxford quickly felt like home!
During these last warm and sunny days of late summer, I spent a lot of time exploring the city and its surroundings. The area between Oxford and Hinksey in particular, but also Christ Church Meadow, the University Parks and the paths along the Thames between New Hinksey and Iffley are ideal for walking and running. During this time, I also had the opportunity to participate in the conference “’In our own tongues’: The Medieval Vernacular Bible and its European Contexts”, make initial contacts and friendships, and got to get to know and accompany the participants of the Summer School “Opening the Archives” organised by the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes. The participants’ task was to prepare the digital edition of the pamphlet “Against the attacking peasants” (Martin Luther, 1525): they created the transcriptions, a first draft of the online edition, and curated a small exhibition on the topic in the Voltaire Room of the Taylor Institution Library.
The Michaelmas term 2025 also marked the start of seminars and actual university life in Oxford: through Henrike Lähnemann, Marina Giraudeau, the other intern for the term, and I were affiliated with St Edmund Hall College, and our admission as guest members for this term enabled us to participate in MCR social events. These events, which go hand in hand with belonging to a college, are something I am not familiar with from university life in Germany: Of course, there is also the opportunity here to join a hockey or volleyball group through university sports, go to the gym or go swimming. However, such events are inter-university, as we do not have an equivalent to the colleges. On the one hand, I liked how familiar the environment was, especially for undergraduates, but at the same time, from a German perspective, it is a little strange to be accommodated in college rooms: in Germany, students are not even obliged to live in the city where they study!
Similar to my job in Munich, where I am also involved in the chair’s advanced seminar, I was allowed to participate as an intern in Henrike Lähnemann’s DPhil colloquium in Oxford, where I was able to present my own dissertation project. As an early modern historian with a background in German studies, I particularly benefited from the feedback of the other participants, as most of them have a background in medieval studies and gave me valuable advice on working with different manuscripts. The approach to vigilance being researched by the SFB also met with lively interest and opened up further perspectives: How does our view of the sources change when we look for attention or vigilance in them? What new perspectives open up for us? Where do we encounter limitations when dealing with vigilance? We addressed these and other questions in the discussion that followed my presentation.
In addition to the colloquium, I participated in the seminar “History of the Book. Method Option 2025/2026”. Under the direction of Henrike Lähnemann, we dealt with different aspects each week of the term: palaeography, book development, book production and printing, textual transmission, the function and structure of libraries, and the growing field of digital humanities are just some of the topics that were the focus of attention. The emphasis was on medieval and early modern works, in particular the aforementioned Reformation publications. What I particularly liked about it, however, was that we were able to work on this seminar very much according to the principle of show-and-tell, which meant we worked in a very practical way and very close to the sources. Henrike Lähnemann invited other academics to many of the sessions, which also brought us into contact with different areas of research and work.
This work was supplemented by the “Medieval German Graduate Seminar” which is jointly organised by the three German medievalists Henrike Lähnemann, Almut Suerbaum, and Annette Volfing, taking place in Michaelmas Term in Almut Suerbaum’s college Somerville, in which we dealt with Ulrich Richental’s Chronicle of the Council of Constance (second half of the 15th century). Here, too, we dealt with different topics each week, and the discussions on the different manuscripts and their characteristics, on the boundary between historiography and literary works, but also on the historical background were particularly beneficial for my own research. These two seminars enabled me to deepen my knowledge of medieval and early modern book production and the critical approach to manuscripts, as well as my background knowledge of the ecclesiastical political circumstances of the 15th century, which ultimately led to the Reformation and thus to my project.
3 Working with early modern printed books and their digital editions
Fig. 7: Woodcut from ARCH.8°.G.1525(28). Upon closer inspection, it is noticeable that the year 1571 is written in the upper third, not 1521.
My research internship in Oxford focused on Reformation pamphlets, especially those by Luther from 1525, which are now held by the Taylor Institution Library. The aim was to bibliographically record, describe, document and compare the copies. It was particularly interesting to see how much such a pamphlet can reveal about the history of its creation and distribution. Whether it is the mirrored year on the woodcut, which indicates that it is a pirated edition, or the condition of the paper, which allows us to make a statement about how often the pamphlet was probably read and commented on – it is hardly possible to get any closer to the history of its reception!
Here, too, it was not difficult for me to establish connections to my research topic and, in particular, to vigilance: Reformation pamphlets can be read as media of heightened attention that respond specifically to perceived grievances, threats and crises. In 1525 in particular, a year marked by uprisings, uncertainty and escalating conflicts, these prints served as normative guidance for their authors and recipients but were also an expression of a changing world. A detailed analysis of the material properties, visual language and textual exaggerations revealed the extent to which practices of vigilance were not only negotiated but also generated. In this sense, the prints can be understood as part of an early modern culture of vigilance in which attention was to be directed, judgement demanded and collective willingness to act established. Furthermore, the comparison between the corpus of letters I am working on for my dissertation project and the printed pamphlets of the Reformation period sharpened my eye for media differences in vigilance practices: while the letters primarily describe a community-oriented, internal vigilance, the pamphlets aimed at public attention. What both have in common is that they provoked reactions and processes of adaptation.
However, I particularly enjoyed working on the online edition, which allowed me to become more familiar with Oxygen and coding in TEI P5 XML. Here, I was able to adapt the translation of the online edition of the pamphlet to the print version. A major highlight of this work was the launch event for the edition on 28 November, where I had the opportunity to read aloud from “Wider die mordischen und reubischen Rotten der Pawren” together with several others.
4 Oxford, snow globes and strolls between libraries and cafés
I was very lucky to be able to experience Oxford in the run-up to Christmas. From mid-November onwards, colourful lights decorated the streets, the many windows of the cafés and shops were decorated for Christmas, and the Oxford Christmas market – which, as a German, made me feel particularly at home – opened its doors at the end of November. From there, you can go straight to Blackwell’s, Oxford’s most beautiful bookshop, and do all your Christmas shopping after work and between mulled wines. The only limit I faced here was the weight of my suitcase: 23 kg as the airline’s limit is really not much after three months in Oxford!
Someone once said to me that Oxford is a bit like a snow globe: a self-contained system, a bubble that extends mainly over the university and forms a world of its own. And that’s true, in a way. Oxford invites you to immerse yourself, drift along and forget the outside world for a while. And, similar to the snowflakes in such globes, the mentality here is not really tangible: I talked to several people about their impressions of the city, many of whom have been living here for several years. What they all had in common was that they incredibly appreciate how much the city thrives academically; it’s almost as if you can watch it grow. This is mainly because research is immensely important and the city has developed and continues to develop around it: researchers come, learn and teach, exchange ideas and leave again, but the network remains. Although the city is not that big at its core, you quickly notice how extensive the network that has formed here is and how it continues to grow. I was told that Oxford is a hub to which many people return at some point, and I like that idea. Apart from the contacts I made during my research internship, I was also able to use the time to meet up again with scientists I already knew from other contexts. So, during these months, I also had the opportunity to closely integrate my research internship with my dissertation project and work on two projects at the same time!
Just as valuable as the contacts I made and maintained are all the libraries there are to explore. Regular spots and get-togethers to work together are great, but seriously: use your reader’s card and visit as many libraries as you can! Work in them, look at the books, borrow manuscripts and take the opportunity to immerse yourself in topics that may not initially have anything to do with your field of research! This opens up so many new project opportunities, and even if you don’t have time for them, working with these sources is helpful as they may reveal new perspectives on your own projects!
In addition to the opportunity to immerse yourself in the sources, you can also take part in the “Medievalists Coffee Mornings” at the Weston Library on Fridays, where you can enjoy coffee or tea and biscuits while listening to a short lecture on selected sources from the Bodleian Collections. The speakers change, so that sources from different eras and disciplines are presented, allowing you to engage in conversation with a wide variety of scholars. A little tip: the terrace, from which you can look out over Oxford, is also well worth a visit in this context!
As a very student-oriented city, Oxford has a multitude of cafés and pubs, all of which are worth trying out. My regular haunts were Jericho, the High Street, of course, as well as the surrounding streets and the area around Cowley Road. At the same time, it should be noted that even the most beautiful cafés and pubs are only half as great without friends. The idle hours of work on the weekends, which you sometimes have to put in, are much easier to bear after a coffee together at “The Independent”, for example! What’s more, the time in between can be put to excellent use to talk to others about your own projects and possible synergies!
P.S.: Coffee stamp cards are really worth it! I collected a few of them myself at my favourite café and got a pumpkin spiced latte or two for free!
5 Farewells and Returns
The twelve weeks I spent in Oxford flew by incredibly quickly. Looking back, this time was not only marked by my own intensive research work, but also by a constant sharpening of my attention: for sources, for methodological questions and for different scientific environments and their social practices. The research internship thus offered me the opportunity to reflect on and further deepen central questions of my dissertation project in a new context. Once again, it became particularly clear to me that vigilance can be understood not only as an analytical concept, but also as an attitude that shapes one’s own everyday academic life – whether in dealing with sources, in exchanges with colleagues, or in exploring new environments. At the same time, I had the opportunity to meet many wonderful people who greatly influenced my stay in Oxford and made this time unforgettable.
What am I taking back with me to Munich from Oxford? In addition to the many books, gifts and memories, there are also ideas for further projects: whether these are ideas for creative writing or for introducing meetings such as the Medievalists Coffee Mornings into my own working environment in Munich – I am looking forward to the coming months, during which I will continue to draw on this stay!
Finally, what could be more fitting than a formal dinner at St Edmund Hall to mark the end of my stay? I was even lucky enough to be invited to the undergraduates’ Christmas dinner. Together with Marina, I had the privilege of sitting at the high table with Henrike Lähnemann, enjoying interesting conversations and experiencing the Christmas traditions of Christmas crackers and singing on chairs!
P.S.: Stamp cards are also worthwhile when it comes to farewells: I have just started a new one at my favourite café, so I definitely have to come back to Oxford! Perhaps this is my personal Oxford equivalent of the coin in the Trevi Fountain – it has worked for Rome in any case!
[1] Brendecke, Arndt: Warum Vigilanzkulturen? Grundlagen, Herausforderungen und Ziele eines neuen Forschungsansatzes. In: Mitteilungen des SFB Vigilanzkulturen (01/2020), p. 11–17, here p. 16 (my translation).
7 February, 11:00-12:30, St John’s College, North Seminar Room, Writer’s Workshop 7 February, 14:00-15:00, Exeter Cohen Quad, Fitzhugh Auditorium,Talk and Book-Signing
To begin Hilary term 2026, the Oxford Writers’ House is hosting the House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms writer, Ti Mikkel, for a writer’s workshop and book talk. This day will mark Mikkel’s first visit to Oxford since the Oxford Writers’ House event with George RR Martin on 2 August 2024 at the Sheldonian Theatre, which is available to watch through the Oxford Writers’ House YouTube Channel.
Ti Mikkel’s journey in the world of multimedia writing is fraught with adversity, perseverance, and a little bit luck. She started out by moving to Hollywood with no friends, connections, or suggestions to speak of, but after landing an unpaid internship as Martin’s personal writing assistant, she began to climb the Game of Thrones production ladder, rung after rung. She earned writing credits for House of the Dragon, then production credits on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Now, she is eager to share her knowledge with the young, ambitious writers at Oxford University in whatever way she can.
At St John’s College, Mikkel will conduct a workshop in a round robin style to simulate the real feeling of sitting in a writer’s room. Mikkel will then sit down in conversation with us at the Exeter College Cohen Quad to discuss her debut novel, The Archivist. This literary debut represents the culmination of decades’ worth of writing for Mikkel, and George RR Martin notes that her work has paid off extraordinarily well: “The best debut novel I’ve read in years, a page turner with a fresh and original take on time travel, and all the mystery and romance a reader could want.” This is a rare chance to pull back the red curtain and learn firsthand about a writer’s journey across Bluffton (Indiana), Hollywood, Belfast, and London.
Registration for Ti Mikkel’s workshop and author talk is available through the Oxford Writers’ House Eventbrite. Please note that spaces for the workshop are now extremely limited. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me. My name is Griffin Gudaitis. I am a recent graduate of the MPhil in English Studies (Medieval Period) from Linacre College, Oxford University, and my email is oxfordwritershousedirector@gmail.com. Thank you!
Spring School: An Introduction to the “Science of the Stars” Through Manuscripts and Instruments
Weston Library, 16–20 March 2026
Registration is now open for Exploring the Medieval Sky, a spring school designed for undergraduate and graduate students who wish to explore how medieval people understood the sky —encompassing the visible heavens (stars, planets, eclipses, comets), the theoretical structures used to explain them(cosmology, celestial spheres, planetary models), and the cultural meanings attached to celestial phenomena in art, science, and daily life. Over five days, participants will discover the foundations of medieval astronomy and astrology through a combination of lectures, hands-on sessions with manuscripts and instruments, visits to the History of Science Museum and Merton College OldLibrary and presentations of current research.By the end of the course, participants will have acquired a clear chronological framework for the medieval history of the “science of the stars,” will gain practical experience using an armillary sphere and an astrolabe, and will learn to identify the codicological structure and cultural significance of scientific manuscripts through extensive engagement with materials from the Weston Library’s collections.
The spring school is open to all Oxford undergraduate and graduate students. It is designed as anintroductory course; no prior knowledge is required, only an interest in the history of astronomy, astrology,or manuscript studies.To ensure effective work with rare and fragile historical materials, places are limited. By registering,participants agree to attend the full programme. Registration is free.
Organisation: Laure Miolo (Faculty of History, Wadham College) and Alexandre Tur (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris).
With the kind participation of: the Centre for the Study of the Book (Bodleian Library), Sumner Brand (History of Science Museum), Matthew Holford (Bodleian Library), Stephen Johnston (History of Science Museum), Michelle Pfeffer (Magdalen College), Julia Walworth (Merton College), Sian Witherden (Exeter College).
Report on an In-Depth Crash-Course on the History of ‘the Book’ with Péter Tóth by Alice Lanyue Zhang (MSt. Modern Languages, 2025)
This session of the History of the Book seminar at the Weston Library, led by Péter Tóth, focused on understanding the development of the Bible in its layout, languages, and content from the very early scrolls to the numerous modern printed editions. Each of the students was asked to bring along an edition of the Bible to compare and contrast what elements might have been retained throughout the traditions and what might have changed in modern printing and editorial practices. This 3-hour-long session was divided into 3 lecture sections looking at different major stages of the Bible in its transmission and production, and each section was followed by a short manuscript viewing session looking closely at Bible copies from different locations and historical periods.
Fig. 1: 16th cent. Torah scroll from China
As an introduction to the session, Péter first presented us with three Bible copies representing the two ends of the material history of the Bible. The first item is a massive, carefully made Torah scroll in Hebrew (Figure 1) from, very interestingly, a 16th-century synagogue in southern China by the local Jewish community. Despite the late production, its scroll formatand its content of the Pentateuch make it a perfect indication of what the earliest Hebrew Bible would look like, which has also been proven true by the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Its painstaking production, substantial size and difficulty of navigation also transformed the very act of reading into a ritual demanding careful handling and a mastery of the scripture. Only selected people are allowed to read the scroll, without direct touching, due to its sanctity. The second item was a facsimile of the Gutenberg Bible, with the last item being Henrike’s Die Bibel in gerechter Sprache(a Bible edition taking linguistic diversity and inclusivity into serious consideration). The former marks the beginning of the printed era of Bible production, whereas the latter marks the latest stage in our time. In contrast to the Torah scroll, the printed books make the Bible a much more open and accessible text with much easier navigation, increased portability and mass production. By laying these items side by side (Figure 2), we directly witnessed the huge transformation that the Bible and its materiality have gone through across history, which is exactly the topic of today.
Figure 2: Hebrew Torah scroll, a facsimile of the Gutenberg Bible and Die Bibel in gerechter Sprache side by side
The first section introduced the first translation of the Hebrew Scripture, i.e. the Septuagint, in Ancient Greek, done by seventy-two (always remember the ‘two’! emphasised by Péter) Jewish Rabbis commissioned by Ptolemy II around the early 3rd century BCE. It marks the beginning of the complete integration of the Old Testament into Hellenic Culture and the following reconciliation between Hellenic Greek mythology and Jewish Monotheism. But more importantly to this session, it also represents the start of the Hebrew Bible reaching outside of the Jewish community, rendered legible and understandable for its new audiences by translation – one of the two crucial elements driving the wide, cross-cultural dissemination of the Bible and its material transformation that came along, as Péter argued. In its own time, the Septuagint already kick-started a wave of translational attempts among native Greek-speakers who were unhappy with the Rabbis’ command over the languages. We see Aquila’s extremely literal translation prioritising the Hebrew syntax, Symmachus’ elegant rendition of the Scripture into Homeric Greek, and Origen’s Hexapla critically comparing all major Bible translations circa 250-60 AD. The Septuagint became even more profoundly influential as numerous scribal practices it took became traditions adopted by many later manuscripts, and various important biblical vocabulary and concepts it established are still deeply embedded in Western languages today.
Show-and-tell at the end of the first session: MS. Gr. Class. a. 1 (frame 9), Facsimile of the Venetus A Ms of Homer’ s Iliad, Facsimile of the Vienna Dioscoros, MS Ms. Auct. T. Inf. 2. 12, Ms. Barocci 15, Ms. Roe 4. Consult https://medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ for more information about the items presented
In the following manuscript-viewing session, we began by examining the earliest examples of layout formats in Western tradition. The first example is a fragment of Homer’s Iliad in the form of a luxury papyrus roll (Figure 3), produced roughly in the 3rd century AD. The verses are copied in two columns, annotated critically by the Alexandrian scholars. It shows us some of the earliest efforts to consolidate the Homeric verses and produce a critical school edition, which would become the blueprint for formatting the Greek Old Testament. Péter then presented us with two examples of the ultimate form of this early editorial tradition. The first one is a facsimile of an early 11th-century critical edition of the Iliad(Figure 4), and the second is a facsimile of the Juliana Anicia Codex (Figure 5 & 6). In both examples, we sawthe carefully glossed text being preceded by a series of complementary content: biographiesand portraits of the author, introductory treatises and/or summaries, credits of editors, table of contents, title, etc. We then examined two early codices, one of the Septuagint and one of the Book of Psalms, where we observed the continuation and influences of the editorial and layout practices in the classical texts. With the Book of Psalms, we also found modifications and additions of elements to suit the specific liturgical needs (e.g., calculation tables and calendars). From here, we developed a clear idea of what the early standardised format of the Scripture would look like, which led the way to the next sections focusing on its wider transmission.
Figure 3 Fragmentary papyrus roll of the Iliad, MS. Gr. Class. a. 1 (frame 9)Figure 4 Facsimile of the 11th-century critical edition of the IliadFigures 5&6: Facsimile of the Juliana Anicia CodexFigures 5&6: Facsimile of the Juliana Anicia Codex
The second lecture focused on the second and last core element that drove the transmission of the Bible – the New Testament. It played a crucial role in the process due to its missionary nature to spread Christianity and carried the Old Testament along with it, formulating the Bible we know today. Péter gave us a general introduction to the evolution of the New Testament, where it began as simply a record of Christ’s sayings and teachings. With the evangelists adding context and expanding the text, it developed into the popular genre of gospels that went far beyond the canonical Four Gospels that are now in the Bible. We also saw the emergence of apostolic writings, such as numerous epistles and the Acts of the Apostles. With such a rich pool of literature came the need for solidification. Thus, around the 4th-5th centuries, the canonisation of the New Testament gradually took place. The distinction between ‘canon’, accepted texts and ‘spurious’, rejected texts became common and concepts like the ‘apocrypha’ were established.
What also came with the New Testament is the rise of the codex. Originating from ancient Roman wax tablets, the codex was adopted by Christians as the main format. The change to codex format allowed more writing space, easier navigation for liturgical uses and likely contained an ideological undertone of distinguishing the new Christianity from the pagan scrolls. The material also transitioned from papyrus to parchment due to its durability and reusability, as well as the papyrus shortage at the time. Yet the change of material format doesn’t necessarily entail a change in editorial practices. For instance, in one of the earliest complete Bibles, the Codex Sinaiticus (ca.350AD), it still retained the 8-column layout of the papyrus scroll. At the end of this lecture session, Péter discussed the practical use of the gospel books as a common form of New Testament transmission, in which we saw the development of canon tables that compare the narrative units across the Four Gospels, something we would see very frequently very soon.
Show-and-tell at the end of the second session: Ms. Aeth. c. 2, Ms. Cromwell 16, Ms. Arm. d. 4. Consult https://medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ for more information about the items presented
Accompanying the lecture, in the next manuscript viewing session, we saw various copies of the New Testament that were produced in different regions and different periods. As pointed out by Péter, canon tables (sometimes with a user guide) became widely present in almost all gospel books, followed by more ‘traditional’ elements such as a list of chapters, portraits of authors, and abstracts for each book. One of the highlights during this session was the comparison Péter presented with three different codices of the Gospels produced a few hundred years apart: one Ethiopian, one Greek and one Armenian (Figure 7). Each copies are decorated with cultural iconographies in local artistic traditions, yet the layout and format of the codex remained the same. From here, we see with our own eyes the wide, cross-cultural dissemination of the New Testament and the relative stability of itsstandardised textual and material production.
Figure 7: Comparison between three Gospel books, Ms. Aeth. c. 2, Ms. Cromwell 16, Ms. Arm. d. 4. Consult https://medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ for more information about the items presented
The last lecture focused on the history of the Latin Bible for its profound linguistic, cultural and spiritual influence in the Western world. The need for a Latin Bible started with the Latin-speaking Romans in North Africa around the 2nd-3rd centuries AD due to the limited Greek influence in the area and the increasing demand to understand Christian texts. The translation likely began sparsely with liturgies before developing into full text, as we found notes of oral translation in lines or margins of the Gospel books at the time. The early translations of the Bible were often adapted for regional dialects and corrected against unfounded Greek manuscripts, leading to the mixing of textual traditions and the overwhelming parallel existence of different versions by the 4th century. Therefore, Pope Damasus commissioned Jerome in 382 AD to polish and unify the Old Latin Gospels and later the Old Testament, producing the foundation of a standardised Latin Bible despite its controversial reception. In 585 AD, Cassiodorus and his monastery developed a full Bible based on Jerome’s work, which is preserved in the Codex Amiatinus. Finally, in the court of Charlemagne, with the unification of the Carolingian Empire, a standard full Latin version was produced and successfully circulated across the empire from ca. 800 AD, marking the consolidation of the Vulgate Bible.
Latin Bible in medieval manuscripts from the Bodleian Library. Consult https://medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ for more information about the items presented: Ms. Laud. misc. 752 – the Romanesque bible; Canon. Bibl. Lat. 60 – Carolingian gospel book; Ms. Auct. E. inf. 7. – Glossed Bible; Ms. Broxb. 89. 9. – Paris Bible; Facsimile of the Munich copy of the Gutenberg Bible; Bibel in gerechter Sprache
In the final manuscript viewing session, we saw several different copies of the Latin version of the Bible (Figures 8 & 9). In these copies, we continued to see a series of fairly standardised layouts and editorial practices, i.e., all the elements mentioned above, that could trace back to as early as the classical textual traditions and the emergence of practical gospel books. We also examined several beautiful and interesting illustrations. For instance, in a Carolingian gospel book, the portraits of the four evangelists formed a ‘stop-motion’ of the writing process (Figure 10); the historiated initial of Genesis in one Bible codex illustrated the seven days of creation (Figure 11). Eventually, we circled back to the facsimile of the Gutenberg Bible that symbolises the revolution of the printing press, and the beginning of modern Bibles.
And thus concluded the 3-hour journey on the history of ‘the Book’.
Figure 8: Purple canon tablesFigure 9: Different Bible versions side-by-sideFigure 10: The process of writing formed by the portraits of the four evangelistsFigure 11: The Creation illustrated in the initial ‘I’ of Genesis.
Friday, 28 November, 5-6.30pm Room 2 of the Taylor Institution Library
The launch featured a dramatised reading of the text and a display of the Taylorian holdings of German Peasants’ War pamphlets by a group of readers from across the University. The new edition comprises a historical and bibliographic introduction as well as the edition, translation, and facsimile. Open access volume here and a recording.
Introduction by Henrike Lähnemann and Lyndal Roper. Reader in the order of speaking: Henrike Lähnemann, Ryan Hampton, Rahel Micklich, Lyndal Roper, Eddie Handley, Marina Giraudeau, Ararat Ameen, Monty Powell, Georgia Macfarlane, Hannah Free, Victoria Speth, Emma Huber, Tamara Klarić, Timothy Powell
Practice recording of Martin Luther’s pamphlet ‘Against the Bands of Peasants’ by Henrike Lähnemann
1525 was a dramatic year in German politics. The Peasants’ War swept through South and East Germany and mobilised a large number of peasants in support of the movement, and an even larger number on the side of the princes and ruling classes opposing it. Martin Luther, dependent on the princes to realise his Reformation ideas, wrote one of the most vicious pamphlets of his life, attacking the ideas of the peasants, particularly their use of the term ‘freedom’. He defended his own use of the term as pertaining only to spiritual freedom and condemned insurrection in the strongest terms, calling on the princes to “slay, choke and stab” any rebel.
500 years after its first publication, this edition with a new modern English translation, extensive linguistic and historical footnotes, and a comprehensive introduction contextualises the attack, both in terms of its historic significance and its afterlife. As in the previous volumes from the Reformation Series of the Taylor Editions, the text is based on pamphlets from the Taylorian collection which are also provided as facsimiles. The volume is published open access and with additional resources such as an audiobook and ‘fold-your-own-pamphlet’ for both of the copies held in the Taylorian. In the historical introduction, Rahel Micklich discusses in turn the historical background of the Peasants’ War (1), the underlying conflict with radical reformer Thomas Müntzer (2), and the ensuing pamphlet war with the Catholic adversaries of Luther, particularly Johann Cochlaeus. Timothy Powell then looks at the reception of the pamphlet in the GDR who were clearly taking the side of the peasants and of Thomas Müntzer against Luther’s polemic. A book historical chapter follows, examining the contemporary reception of all of Luther’s 1525 pamphlets on the topic as mirrored in the pamphlets held in the Taylorian and in the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford. The introduction is rounded off by a short explanation of the language of the pamphlet, the typographical conventions, and the principles guiding the edition by Henrike Lähnemann, with a comprehensive bibliography on the pamphlet.
Have a look at the digital editions of the two Taylorian copies of Martin Luther’s pamphlet against the peasants. No. 2 also includes the new English translation.
A full list of all Reformation pamphlets in the Taylorian with photographs of their title-pages is available on Taylor Editions website, and links to all published volumes in the three series ‘Treasures of the Taylorian’ is available on the publications website.
We are pleased to trial a new format, once or twice a term, in which readers of medieval manuscripts can pose questions to a mixed group of fellow readers and Bodleian curators in a friendly environment. Come with your own questions, or to see what questions other readers have!
The sort of questions you might bring are:
What is the place and date of origin of this MS?
What is the place and date of origin of this binding?
What does the decoration of this MS suggest?
What does this semi-legible inscription say?
Whose bookplate is this, or how could I find out?
Meetings will typically be held in the Horton Room (just across the corridor from the manuscripts reading room on the 1st floor). If you wish to pose a question, please order the relevant manuscript to the issue desk, and email the details to Matthew Holford, Tolkien Curator of Medieval Manuscripts, the day before, so that he can arrange for it to be transferred across to the Horton Room for the session. Alternatively, provide a good quality digital image that we can display on a large monitor.
In the expectation that many readers will be at the Weston Library on Fridays for the weekly Coffee Morning in the Visiting Scholars’ Centre, the next such sessions are scheduled for the following dates:
Friday, 28 November 2025 (Horton Room) 11.30-12:30pm
Friday, 5 December 2025 (Horton Room)11.30-12:30pm
Please sign up using this form. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.
As part of the Italian Research Seminar, Ryan Pepin will speak on ‘Dietro la memoria non può ire’: Copyists’ Slips in the Textual Tradition of the Commedia.
Time and Place: Monday, November 10th (5th week), Taylorian, Room 2, 1-2:30 PM
Abstract: The enormous textual tradition of Dante’s Commedia – over 600 complete manuscripts – is a mine of data on how scribes worked in late medieval Italy. Thanks to the efforts of palaeographers and codicologists over the last twenty years, we have learned about the difference between professional and amateur milieux (Pomaro), the development of collaborative, serial book production in Florence (De Robertis, Ceccherini), copyists’ efforts to compare and correct their texts (Tonello) – even about the ‘habits’ of individual scribes (Marchetti).
This paper studies a type of error which to which Dante’s copyists were especially prone: errors that resulted from a good memory of the poem. By studying scribal innovations that ‘echo’ other lines in the text (Petrocchi), we come as close as we can to early readers’ ear for the poem: what they attended to, how they understood the poet’s style – and even, I will suggest, how they understood the poet’s own compositional practice.
Bio: Ryan is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of York. He is currently studying medieval Latin rhythmical poetry that circulated in Italy during the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries.
Saturday 15 November | 14:00-19:00 | Chapel St Edmund Hall Open to all, whether singer, scholar, or curious listener. No singing experience required. Tickets: £15 (General) | £5 (Students & Concessions) | free for SEH staff, students & Fellows Register on Eventbrite
The historical wind and vocal ensemble In Spiritu Humilitatis joins the Choir of St Edmund Hall for an immersive exploration of Renaissance Vespers. Reading directly from original choirbooks in white mensural notation, and guided by the sound of cornetts, sackbuts, and voices, participants will rediscover the expressive freedom of improvised polyphony and the luminous sonorities of early sacred music.
While traditional musical education often relies on modern editions, working from original sources opens a world of interpretative freedom. It allows musicians to make their own informed choices about phrasing, accidentals, and flow, rather than relying on an editor’s interpretation. It’s a liberating process. Reading from the sources draws you closer to the composer’s voice, encouraging a more personal, heartfelt performance.
This workshop invites you to experience that process firsthand: to step into the world of a Renaissance choir and take part in the singing of Vespers for St Edmund, Archbishop of Canterbury. Together we’ll explore the structure of the service, learn how to sing psalms in monody and improvise around plainchant, and practise reading from original notation.
Open to all, whether singer, scholar, or curious listener, this participatory event is about discovery, connection, and the joy of music-making. There are no wrong notes, only the opportunity to let your musicianship lead the way.
Here’s how the afternoon will go:
2:00 pm – Welcome and introduction to the structure of Vespers 2:30–3:30 pm – Working on the psalms Break After the break – Exploring polyphonic pieces in white mensural notation 5:10 pm – Short break 5:30 pm – Performance of Vespers for St Edmund
“OH, I’ve had such a curious dream!” said Alice […]
– Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)
Going back to Germany after my two-week adventure in Oxford, I, just like Alice, felt as if waking up from a magical dream. It is not an overstatement to say that the city has bewitched me and, trust me, you don’t have to be a huge Harry Potter geek (which I nevertheless am) to fall under its spell. No wonder the city served as inspiration for Lewis Carroll‘s most famous novel. Instead of a White Rabbit with a big pocket watch, it was Henrike Lähnemann with her trumpet whose call I followed. Prof. Lähnemann kindly invited me to the XML summer school taking place yearly at St Edmund Hall and to spend another week as her intern at the Sommerakademie of the German Scholarship Foundation
Saint Margaret’s Well in Binsey featuring as “Treacle Well“ in Alice in Wonderland
“CURIOUSER and curiouser!”
– Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)
There‘s no better way to describe my time in Oxford. From the start, the theme of my visit was “Looking behind closed doors“. I arrived just in time for the Oxford Open Doors, which take place each year in September and allow the public a sneak peek into Oxford’s Colleges. For me that meant: see as much as you can within one day! I think I almost walked 40 000 steps that day, but the visual enrichment made more than up for the physical fatigue.
Shrine of St Frideswide in Christ Church Cathedral
While, outside of Open Doors, you can get into some colleges by simply asking nicely or pretending to be a prospective student, you usually need to pay an entrance fee, which can vary from £2 to up to £20, depending on the colleges prestige and their Harry Potter screen-time. The best way to get inside without having to pay is to go to a college chapel service or evensong. No one can fine you for wanting to go to church and no one will come after you if you walk the grounds a little afterwards. (As long as you don’t step on the grass!) Prof. Lähnemann took us to Christ Church Cathedral on the first day of the Sommerakademie, where we were able to enjoy all the pomp and circumstance of an Anglican church service and the angelic voices of Christ Church’s choir.
As the saying goes “When one door closes, another one opens up“, I spent my second week as part of Prof. Lähnemann’s working group “Opening the Archives“. The object was to create a digital edition of Martin Luther’s pamphlet “Wider die mörderischen und räuberischen Rotten der Bauern“ (1525), which is going to be published in November 2025 in the Reformation Series of the Taylor Editions. Together with her colleague Dr Andrew Dunning, Prof. Lähnemann gave us enlightening insights into the history of bookmaking, the collection of Reformation pamphlets in Oxford, and printing practices in the 16th century. We even dabbled a little in some printing work ourselves at the printing workshop of the Bodleian Library.
Printing Workshop in the ‘schola musicae’ of the Bodleian Library
Duke Humfrey’s Library
At the end of the week, we had not only gained a better understanding of the Reformation and the Peasant’s War, but, thanks to Emma Huber, the German subject librarian and DH lead at the Taylor Institution Library, also made our own transcription and edition as well as curated an exhibition case at the Taylorian.
One of the key lessons I learned during my time in Oxford is to approach all objects with curiosity and to look closely. There is usually a story behind the smallest and most insignificant-seeming thing – whether it be an old shoe scraper or an inconspicuous pencil marking in a book. Our little group was lucky enough to have access to those parts of the University not open to the public, but many of Oxford’s treasures are not kept under lock and key. The “Treasured“ Exhibition at the Weston Library is a great example of that. Free of charge, you can gaze at various precious specimens of the Library’s collection.
But you don‘t even always need to step inside to discover hidden treasures. Simply by walking through Oxford’s streets with attentive eyes, you‘ll see things that seem to come straight from Wonderland: Gargoyles staring down at you in no way less grotesque than Carroll’s grinning cat; or the beak heads around the entrance of St Peter-in-the-East (St Edmund Hall) and St Mary’s in Iffley, which are – to put it once more in Carroll’s words – “indeed a queer-looking party“.
Junius Manuscript at the “Treasured“ Exhibition in the Weston Library
Chevron Ornaments with beak heads at St Peter-in-the-East (St Edmund Hall)
St. Mary’s (Iffley): West entrance with Chevron Ornaments including beak heads
A Mad Tea Party
As Alice learns during her Adventures, it often is not so much about what you do, but who you do it with. It makes a huge difference if you have a tea party with a mad hatter, a March Hare, and a dormouse or with your old aunt Agatha. It’s the people that make an event unforgettable. And that summarizes my summer school experience(s) quite nicely. Especially during the first week at the XML summer school, where I, as a medieval Germanist and foreigner to the digital world, only understood about 30% of what was being taught. However, I met so many fascinating, inspiring people and had interesting discussions, in which new perspectives opened up to me. The same holds for the Sommerakademie of the German Scholarship Foundation: Young people from all different subjects and backgrounds coming together, sharing ideas, knowledge and always a good laugh. That is why I regard tea breaks, lunches and dinners as an essential part of the summer school experience. They give you the chance to connect with other people, socialise, pick up interesting conversations, and, of course, enjoy the excellent food! (In that respect Teddy Hall excelled. But you need to be quick when it comes to pudding, otherwise you might face an empty tray and ask yourself: “WHO stole the tarts?“) Staying on the topic of food and socializing, I would advise everyone to visit the Coffee Mornings at the Weston every Friday at 11:30 am. Alongside tea, coffee and biscuits there is a talk on a different topic every week, so no matter which subject you are coming from, there will be something for you. It is a great opportunity to see some of the unique holdings of Oxford’s libraries and gain an insight into current research projects at the university.
I want to take this opportunity to thank the person who most prominently shaped my Oxford experience: Henrike Lähnemann. One thing is for sure, had I been interning for another Professor, the two weeks would have been less crazy, lacked fun, less memorable. So next time you think you hear the distant call of a trumpet, follow it! It might lead you into Wonderland…
Judith Habenicht is a German and History student at the University in Heidelberg who spent two weeks in Oxford on a placement with Henrike Lähnemann
