New Book | The Historic Heart of Oxford University
Distributed by The University of Chicago Press:
Geoffrey Tyack, The Historic Heart of Oxford University (Oxford: Bodleian Library Publishing, 2022), 192 pages, ISBN: 978-1851245284, $55.
Over eight centuries, the University of Oxford—the third oldest university in Europe—gradually came to occupy a substantial portion of the city, creating in the process a unique townscape containing the Bodleian Library, the Sheldonian Theatre, and the Radcliffe Camera. This book tells the story of the growth of the forum universitatis, as the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor called it, and relates it to the broader history of the University and the city. Based on up-to-date scholarship, The Historic Heart of Oxford University draws upon the author’s research into Oxford’s architectural history and the work of Christopher Wren, Nicholas Hawksmoor, James Gibbs, and Giles Gilbert Scott. Each of the eight chapters focuses on the gestation, creation, and subsequent history of a single building or pair of buildings, relating them to developments in the University’s intellectual and institutional life, and to broader themes in architectural and urban history.
Accessible and well-illustrated with plans, archival prints, and specially commissioned photography, this book will appeal to anyone who wishes to understand and enjoy Oxford’s matchless architectural heritage.
Geoffrey Tyack is an emeritus Fellow of Kellogg College, University of Oxford, and President of the Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society.
C O N T E N T S
1 The University Church and the Congregation House
2 The Divinity School and the Duke Humfrey’s Library
3 The Schools Quadrangle
4 The Sheldonian Theatre
5 The Old Ashmolean Museum
6 The Clarendon Building
7 The Radcliffe Camera and Radcliffe Square
8 The New Bodleian and the Weston Library
Notes
Further Reading
Picture Credits
Index
Call for Papers | 2023 Wallace Seminars in the History of Collecting
From the Call for Papers:
Seminars in the History of Collecting, 2023
The Wallace Collection, London, last Monday of the Month
Proposals due by 30 September 2022
The seminar series was established as part of the Wallace Collection’s commitment to the research and study of the history of collections and collecting, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Paris and London. We are keen to encourage contributions covering all aspects of the history of collecting, including:
• Formation and dispersal of collections
• Dealers, auctioneers, and the art market
• Collectors
• Museums
• Inventory work
• Research resources
The seminars, which are normally held on the last Monday of every month during the calendar year, excluding August and December, act as a forum for the presentation and discussion of new research into the history of collecting. Seminars are open to curators, academics, historians, archivists, and all those with an interest in the subject. Papers should generally be about 45–60 minutes long. Seminars take place between 5.30 and 7pm. The seminars will take place at the Wallace Collection in 2023.
If interested, please send a short text (500–750 words), a brief CV, and indicate any months when you would not be available to speak, by Friday 30 September 2022. For more information and to submit a proposal, please contact:
collection@wallacecollection.org.
Please note that we are able to contribute up to the following sums towards speakers’ travelling expenses to present their papers at the Wallace Collection on submission of receipts:
• Speakers within the UK – £100
• Speakers from Continental Europe – £180
• Speakers from outside Europe – £300
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