Matthew Holford

Eagle-eyed observers will have noticed that days 6 and 7 did not appear over the weekend. If I have a chance to backfill them I will do.

YouTube video by Keble College Oxford The History of Manuscript 30

As always scale is a problem particularly with no ruler in the images. The YouTube video by Keble's librarian gives a good sense of the manuscript as object. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpJH...

This is one of those precious few manuscripts with a colophon saying when, by whom and for whom it was written. Test your Latin and mental arithmetic at the same time.

image of Abbot Enrico Tomacelli of Monte Cassino for whom the manuscript was made

"Psalmist with hands folded across his breast" (Malcolm Parkes catalogue entry)

Day 8 of #DigiBodAdvent is @kebleoxford.bsky.social MS. 30, the Breviary of Enrico Tomacelli. Lavish Beatus page with an image of the patron, and dozens of initials including this rather hip-looking psalmist.
digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/8102...

Last weekend I resumed blogging and have done another post today; I hope to maintain a weekly schedule.

The two new posts concern illuminated leaves from the collections of Victor Goldschmidt and Count Stroganoff.

mssprovenance.blogspot.com

detail of the Trinity miniature (Gnadenstuhl or Throne of Mercy type) on fol. 9v

Detail of a border showing pilgrim badges with stitching as if they have been sewn onto the parchment

#DigiBodAdvent day 5 - the sumptuous Hours of Louis Quarré, MS. Douce 311. Savour the delicate colours of the Trinity or admire the trompe l'oeil effects of the pilgrim badge border (fol. 21v with bonus detail, not shown here, on the reverse, fol. 21r). digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/d23d... 📜

fol. 1r, monk writing, copying from an open book on a shelf

fol. 58r, monk reaching for a book from a bookcase

late with #DigiBodAdvent day 4 which is Queen's College MS. 304 with a lovely series of initials depicting monks reading and writing. Made for John Merylynch aka Moorlinch, monk of Glastonbury, in the early 15th century
digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/a0ca...

Portrait of Francis Douce, half-length, in profile to left, wearing jacket and cravat

My book on the collections of Francis Douce (1757-1834) was published yesterday. It has been a long time in the making, but I've loved every minute working on such incredible material.

link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

An image of a page of handwritten manuscript with an illuminated boarder

A book open at a double page with an intricate illustration of the crucifixion on the left-hand side, and a page of text with an illuminated boarder on the right

An illustration of saints from an illuminated manuscript

The 14th-century Litlyngton Missal is a Latin manuscript which contains the readings and prayers used at the celebration of the Mass, along with a calendar of saints’ days.

You can turn the pages of a digitised copy of the Missal in our museum, The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries.

#EYADigital

Thanks Mark! I should be able to get the record updated.

fragment from a handsome 12th century copy of Augustine, In Evangelium Iohannis, showing the beginning of serm. 40

fragment of "unidentified scholastic philosophy" mid 15th century

#DigiBodAdvent day 3. Everybody loves fragments, and St John's have digitized a whole collection for you (MS. 235). Here are nos 72, Augustine In Evangelium Iohannis, and 18, "unidentified scholastic philosophy" 📜

digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/fa67...
digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/1627...

part of the Annunciation miniature, fol 1r of the Amesbury Psalter

Part of an antiphon with musical notation on staves

One of the changes made by John Grandisson, bishop of Exeter, to the psalter, the addition of St Richard of Chichester to the calendar

Another of Grandisson's additions, fol. 167v (old 169v), a note on the origin of the Te Deum

#DigiBodAdvent day 2, the so-called Amesbury Psalter (All Souls College MS 6). Come for the prefatory miniatures, stay for notated antiphons and extensive evidence of the book's use by John Grandisson bishop of Exeter (d. 1369)
digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/4c70...

digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/ce70...
The description by James Willoughby includes some interesting speculation about when the fragments became associated with the Seneca - in the 17th century or as early as the 15th?

A 14th century copy of Seneca's Tragedies in Italic gothic script with dense glossing

An insular stippled initial followed by 5 lines of half uncial script from a fragment written at Lindisfarne in the early 8th century

First the most recent addition, Lincoln College MS. Lat. 92. Shot - a slightly sorry copy of Seneca's Tragedies (Italy, s. xiv ex), all major decoration lost but plenty of interesting glossing. Chaser - the endleaves, fragments of a magnificent 8th century gospel book from Lindisfarne.

Are you bored of advent calendars yet? I hope not, because I'll be highlighting 25 of the amazing medieval manuscripts added to Digital Bodleian @bodleian.ox.ac.uk this year. #DigiBodAdvent

Celebrating 15 years of Parker Library On the Web The Parker Library guards the legacy of Matthew Parker: a remarkable heritage that is safe, unharmed and yet accessible to all through Parker Library On the Web

15 and + years 🎉
Our teenage years online are all about unrestricted screentime

Go and explore Parker Library On the Web and find our 560 medieval and early modern manuscripts

www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/articles/cel...

Opening from a plain looking medieval medical manuscript

Opening from a plain looking medieval medical manuscript

Finally made it to Curious Cures at @theulspeccoll.bsky.social and what a delight to see so many plain looking text manuscripts alongside the herbals and zodiac men

Two students look at objects in the reading room at The Museum of English Rural Life.

Are you a PhD student & interested in using museum collections in your teaching or research?

We're running a *free* doctoral training programme for students at any institution to learn about working with collections.

Find out more:

collections.reading.ac.uk/whats-on/

Three 2-year postdoctoral positions in COLIBRI, the ERC project based at Sapienza on the reconstruction and study of Hernando Colón's library!

web.uniroma1.it/trasparenza/...

web.uniroma1.it/trasparenza/...

web.uniroma1.it/trasparenza/...

Deadline 12 Dec

And the news is... We're recruiting! Applications are now open for our 2026 @leverhulme.ac.uk Doctoral Scholarships. So, if you want to study at PhD level pre-modern handwritten cultures and the organisation of knowledge and power within them, do investigate our refreshed website.

PhD: AHRC Studentship | University of Exeter Project descriptionThe University of Exeter is offering up to three fully funded AHRC doctoral studentships and training and development opportunities across a range of the AHRC’s disciplines for cand...

Here at Exeter we are offering three fully funded AHRC PhD places in humanities subjects. Please get in touch if you are keen to come and do research with us! Closing date 23 February 2026: www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...

A chance to see a well-used, 3m long, birth scroll made in England c.1500. Covered in prayers & illustrations, in Latin & English, invoking Sts Quiricus & Julitta, it's worn from use, engrained with vaginal fluid, imbued with love, pain, fear, hope & life. 🧵👇
wellcomecollection.org/exhibitions/...

On Incunables 1.5: Falk Eisermann For our second interview issue, we're joined by Falk Eisermann! He talks incunables, the GW, and shares some lovely books too.

Friends, @sibyllacumae.bsky.social just sent the latest issue of Two Half Sheets, our newsletter. This issue: an interview with Falk Eisermann, incunable expert and leader of the GW. Enjoy his kind, thoughtful interview! 📜 #bookhistory #booksky #libsky #rarebooks open.substack.com/pub/twohalfs...

Graphic showing double page opening of emblem book from Stirling Maxwell Collection featuring portrait of a man on the left and a printed emblem of text and image on the right. The image is overlaid with information about the fellowship scheme welcoming researchers and repeating closing date and URL to follow.

📣Our UofG Library Visiting Research Fellowships are now open for applications!

We’re delighted to invite scholars from across the globe to apply to work with our internationally significant collections.

Apply at: www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...

📆Closing date: 5 January 2026

#UofGLibraryFellows

Announcing the J.P. Gumbert Dissertation Award 2025! 🏆

We are looking for the best PhD thesis on any aspect of manuscript studies defended between 1 Sep 2024 and 31 Dec 2025. The award includes a prize of 5,000 EUR and a fellowship at the CSMC.

Apply by 6 February 2026!

uhh.de/csmc-jpga-2025

Opening the black box of EEBO Abstract. Digital archives that cover extended historical periods can create a misleading impression of comprehensiveness while in truth providing access t

Great news! This is out: Opening the black box of EEBO academic.oup.com/dsh/advance-...

3-year postdoc position in medieval studies 3-year postdoc position in medieval studies The Department of Culture and Language invites applications for a 3-year postdoc position in Dominican studies within the CODICUM project. The position is e...

3-year postdoc with CODICUM project for a medievalist placed in Odense, Denmark!

Special focus on Latin, palaeography & Dominican text and book history 📖😍🕵️

tinyurl.com/yrt4x8y3

Made a site where you can practise Old English scansion. You get given a half-line and have to select which of Sievers's five types it belongs to.
Just Beowulf for now, but that's 6364 half-lines to be getting on with: dgplacenames.github.io/scansion/

[Data: clasp.ell.ox.ac.uk/]

Never know when they might come in useful

@bodleian.ox.ac.uk MS. Addit. B. 1. The manuscript has been described and edited by Frank Klaassen in his book "Making Magic in Elizabethan England" (he calls it the "Antiphoner Notebook") doi.org/10.5325/j.ct...