Relevant Links
Audio podcasts from the Designing English Exhibition.
This exhibition will illustrate the graphic design of handwritten manuscripts and inscriptions for the first thousand years of English, across the Middle Ages.
Showcasing the Bodleian Library's rich holdings of medieval manuscripts in English, ranging from Old English picture books or notes scratched into herbals, through fragments of medieval songs scribbled on spare pages, to masterpieces framed with illustrations and gold, or new page designs for practical tasks, such as manuals for handling swans. It will cover the experiences of both the makers and the users of writing: how craftspeople planned and made books, and how readers responded to their designs.
Subscribe:
| # | Episode Title | Description | People | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | A Birth Charm | Dphil student Sian Witherden introduces a 15th Century birthing charm, one of the items on display in the Designing English Exhibition | Sian Witherden | 18 Oct 2018 | |
| 10 | How to record music on the page | Professor Henrike Lähnemann discusses how the challenge of recording music on the page was made in the late middle ages by inventing a musical notation system | Henrike Lähnemann | 18 Oct 2018 | |
| 9 | Designing English Book Art Competition | Professor Daniel Wakelin discusses some of the inspired entries they received from contemporary book artists in response to the Designing English Exhibition | Daniel Wakelin | 18 Oct 2018 | |
| 8 | A Tiny Book of Hours | MPhil Student, Kierri Price, introduces a tiny book of hours - a collection of prayers and devotional material from the late 1300s that would have been read at set intervals during the day. | Kierri Price | 18 Oct 2018 | |
| 7 | Curating the exhibition 'Designing English' | Daniel Wakelin talks about the concept behind the exhibition 'Designing English: Graphics on the Medieval Page' in the Weston Library, Oxford, and about the thrill of working with original material from the Bodleian collection at Oxford Medieval Studies. | Daniel Wakelin, Henrike Lähnemann | 23 Feb 2018 | |
| 6 | Teach us how we may pray | AElfric of Eynsham teaches the congregation to recite the Lord’s Prayer in English, 'Thu ure faeder'. MS. Hatton 115, fol. 10r. Composed 990-995, copied in the second half of the 1000s. Read by Andy Orchard. | Andy Orchard | 16 Jan 2018 | |
| 5 | Come and dance with me in Ireland | The lyrics of dance songs about love and longing, jotted down without music. MS. Rawl. D. 913, fol. 1r-v. Copied in the early 1300s. Read by Helen Appleton, Daniel Wakelin. | Helen Appleton, Daniel Wakelin | 16 Jan 2018 | |
| 4 | If it be played | In the play The Burial of Christ, Joseph, Mary Magdalen and three other women cry out when they see Jesus on the Cross. MS. e Musaeo 160, fol. 141r. Copied c. 1518–1520. Read by Helen Appleton, Angela O'Brien, Daniel Sawyer, Wing Tan Lai. | Helen Appleton, Angela O'Brien, Daniel Sawyer, Wing Tan Lai | 16 Jan 2018 | |
| 3 | First entereth Wisdom | In the play Wisdom, the devil tempts three godly people into sins – lust and other ‘French fashions’. MS. Digby 133, fol. 158r. Copied in the late 1400s. Read by Arka Chakraborty, Matthew Day, Ben Sims, Daniel Sawyer. | Arka Chakraborty, Matthew Day, Ben Sims, Daniel Sawyer | 16 Jan 2018 | |
| 2 | Listeneth now and beth not deaf! | A travelling preacher recites a poem, warning about the horrors of death. MS. Add. E. 6 (R). Copied in the late 1200s. Read by Daniel Wakelin. | Daniel Wakelin | 16 Jan 2018 | |
| 1 | ‘Make we joy now in this feast’ | A carol for Christmas, ‘Nowell nowell nowell’, from a book of church music. MS. Arch. Selden B. 26, fol. 14v. Copied in the mid 1400s. | Henrike Lähnemann | 20 Dec 2017 |