Bodleian Library Friends’ NEWSLETTER Summer 2018 – Winter 2018/19 FROM RICHARD OVENDEN | BODLEY’S LIBRARIAN Dear Friends (in the Helen Hamlyn Trust Treasury), My favourite acquisition has been It has been a year since the new Tolkien: Maker of Middle Earth (in the the extraordinary private press book administrative arrangements for the ST Lee Gallery), and Babel: Adventures Mayflies of the Driftless Region (2005), Friends of the Bodleian came into in Translation which followed Tolkien produced by the artist and master being, and I hope you will agree in the ST Lee Gallery and which was printer Gaylord Shanilec, whose that the Friends programmes have opened by the poet Alice Oswald. printing house, Midnight Paper Sales, continued to be as rich and interesting Throughout the year these programmes produces some of the most inventive, as ever. have been a very visible way in which beautiful, and intellectually interesting the Friends have come together books made (so far) in the twenty We have enjoyed, for example, early first century. It has already inspired a photography (in the form of Deborah to participate in the work of the Bodleian, but the Friends have done postgraduate research project in the Ireland of the Royal Geographical English Faculty! Without the support Society talking on the remarkable much more than enjoy these cultural and intellectual occasions. of the Friends, it would not have been pioneer Isabella Bird); the life and possible for us to acquire these and literature of Oscar Wilde (thanks The financial support, advice, and many other important books and to the Oxford scholar Michele expertise which members provide manuscripts. Mendelssohn); tours of our world- is invaluable to the Bodleian as we leading Conservation Studio and a continue to expand our collections, We look forward to seeing you at the fabulous survey of medieval music in develop our programmes, and conserve Annual Lecture by Sir Roy Strong (in the Bodleian’s collections (thanks to the wonderful materials in our stacks the Sheldonian Theatre on 27 June), Barbara Eichner who brought her own and strong rooms. An important and at the other Friends gatherings. Do choir along to musically illustrate the eighteenth-century book owned by please encourage your friends to join lecture). Voltaire and a copy of the earliest our Friends: it has never been easier (or needed more). The Bodleian’s exhibition programmes known commercially produced Thomas have provided a wonderful opportunity Malton’s A compleat treatise on perspective to bring Friends together in the social in theory and practice (London, 1775) are setting of the Private Views, and we among the important manuscripts and have been able to enjoy the openings printed books acquired through the of Sappho to Suffrage: Women Who Dared Friends of the Bodleian. CHAIRMAN’S WELCOME | PROFESSOR RICHARD MCCABE SECRETARY’S UPDATE | VIRGINIA LLADÓ-BUISÁN he Friends of the Bodleian have always supported riends enjoy each other’s By courtesy of Bodley’s Librarian, the conservation of the Bodleian’s collections, company and I am pleased to members were invited to the opening and, over the years, this has materialised both in report that, over the past year, of several major exhibitions. The F Tgenerous donations and in expert contributions to our our members have participated in a Friends were also treated to a privileged work. full and diverse programme of events look behind the scenes of the Tolkien designed to foster conversation, exhibition in a talk delivered by the Looking back to Duke Humfrey’s Night in 2015, a stimulate discussion, and showcase curator, Catherine McIllwaine. Permanent delightful soiree that brought together specialists and the activities and achievements of the memorials of all our recent exhibitions the Friends to enjoy our collections in a spectacular Library we all love. I can mention only are provided in the beautifully printed venue. I would like to bring back the joy of that glorious the highlights: in May 2018 we viewed catalogues still available from the library night by telling you about our work on those collections a splendid documentary on the home shop. generously funded by you. and garden of Peter Aldington at Our regular programme of lectures Your support has made a real difference to these items. Haddenham, presented by Professor continued with sterling contributions For example, Senior Book Conservator Sabina Pugh John Creaser. The following month from Deborah Ireland on Isabel Bird’s worked on the MS. Laud Lat. 102, a manuscript that brought a fascinating talk on ‘Goethe photographic journals, Dana Josephson contains Gospels in Latin, written in the early ninth à l’anglaise’ from Derek McCulloch, on the Radcliffe Camera’s bust of James century at Fulda Abbey, Germany, in Anglo-Saxon and expertly accompanied by the virtuosi Gibbs, Michéle Mendelssohn on Oscar Wilde, Philippa Caroline minuscule scripts with calligraphic headings of Café Mozart who rendered the scores as they would Bennett on William Morris, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst and illuminated canon tables. The (rebacked) binding originally have been performed in the nineteenth century. on Peter Pan, Nadine Akkerman on female espionage, structure had completely broken down, and there were Further musical entertainment was provided by a much- ABOVE: Conservation treatment of the black velvet covers on Barbara Eichner on monastic music, and A.N. Wilson on several problems with the spine, endpapers, boards, and the Nicolaus Kratzer’s manuscript enjoyed visit by the Garsington Opera in February 2019 Prince Albert. The quality of these lectures was highly leather covering. Sabina dealt with all of these issues for an intriguing performance of items from their summer praised by all who attended, and we are very grateful skilfully: she ordered Kiln-dried quarter-sawn oak boards BELOW: Sabina Pugh attaching the new covering leather to programme. to the speakers for giving of their time and expertise so shaped to our specification, with slight chamfering MS. Laud Lat. 102 A guided tour of the Bodley’s conservation workshop in generously. on head, tail and fore-edge. They were shaped to the textblock and laced on through channels drilled through November 2018 provided rich insights into the cutting- It is always a great pleasure to see so many familiar faces the edge of the boards. edge methods now employed to secure the Library’s at the Friends’ events, but friendship is an inexhaustible holdings, and the issue of conservation was further commodity and we are anxious to widen our circle of Book Conservator Johanne Keiding carried out another addressed in an informative lecture on our Japanese acquaintance. Please recommend the Friends to your excellent conservation treatment on MS. Lat. misc. f. 51, a collections delivered by Virginia Lladó-Buisán and co- friends so that as many people as possible may engage sixteenth-century manuscript of the astronomical works written with her colleague, Robert Minte, to whose joint with, and help to promote, the Bodleian in its centuries of Nicolaus Kratzer, astronomer to Henry VIII. Johanne efforts we are indebted for the preservation of some of our old mission to foster excellence in teaching and research. was able to fully stabilise the manuscript, which had a most precious Eastern manuscripts. The history of print completely broken down sewing before the treatment. Professor Richard McCabe was equally well served by conducted tours of Oxford Additionally, Johanne worked closely with Dr. Maria Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Friends of the University Press, the largest university press in the world. Hayward to repair the damaged, black, velvet covers, Bodleian which was worn and degraded, with stunning results. Finally, I would like to highlight the conservation work carried out by Paper Conservator Julia Bearman and Head of Book Conservation Nicole Gilroy, on MS. Cons. Res. c. 28, which had been withdrawn from normal access since 1984. The condition of the manuscript with its flaking illumination had long been a concern, and it had even been excluded from the Polonsky Digitisation Project in 2016 due to its fragility. After the repair and consolidation of both media and book structure, the manuscript is now stable and can be consulted safely. And it has also been digitised! These are of course just a few examples of projects funded by the Friends, but they are wonderful testimonies of the great value that the Friends of the Bodleian brings to us all, through our precious collections. Virginia Lladó-Buisán, Friends of the Bodleian Secretary and Head of Conservation RECENT ACQUISITIONS AELIUS DONATUS, DE OCTO ORATIONIS PARTIBUS LIBRI OCTO (1517) VOLTAIRE’S SECOND PRESENTATION COPY TO QUEEN CAROLINE elius Donatus, the fourth-century Roman grammarian, rhetorician, and tutor of St Jerome, was the most influential writer on grammar of his day. Purchased by the Bodleian in ith the generous support 1723 and while ostensibly about the siege of question as to whether the volume was ever A December 2018, De octo orationis partibus libri octo, otherwise known as of the Friends of the Paris and the life of by Henry IV of France, sent. Professor Nicholas Cronk, Director of it was an examination of tolerance. the Voltaire Foundation, has suggested that the Ars minor, was a medieval and renaissance school-book, intended Bodleian, the Library has for beginners. The Library has a good collection of incunable editions W This copy of the “fourth” London edition this edition may have been invented by acquired a unique copy of Voltaire’s of 1728 is unrecorded and includes a Voltaire as a gambit to impress the Queen, of the works of Donatus, and the acquisition of this 1517 edition, edited epic French poem in 10 cantos written speciously implying the work had already by the Croatian Dominican scholar Johannes Policarpus Severitanus, in alexandrine couplets, bound with three-page letter in Voltaire’s hand dated 25 April 1728 presenting it to Caroline of run into four editions in just a few weeks.