Matthew Holford
Medievalist and librarian, interested in all aspects of manuscript culture.
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- Reposted by Matthew HolfordSome sad news. courtauld.ac.uk/news-blogs/2...
- Reposted by Matthew HolfordHere is the very latest from Caroline Goodson, hot off the presses! It is an amazing and incredibly important study. Already put it in my syllabus! academic.oup.com/past/advance...
- Reposted by Matthew HolfordA little stop motion video I made of an almanac in the University of Rochester collection to try and give viewers an idea of how it functions 😊 (Video of RCL cod. a.1, a late 14th century folding almanac from England, likely Oxford)
- Reposted by Matthew HolfordDo I have any #DH #DigitalHumanities friends on here who do network visualization (Apr. 6) or digital exhibits/repositories (Apr. 13) who'd be willing to Zoom in for a guest lecture for my Intro to DH class?
- Reposted by Matthew HolfordIf you have graduate students working with medieval manuscripts this free online training might be useful 👇 www.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...
- Reposted by Matthew HolfordAssistant Library sought! www.queens.ox.ac.uk/vacancies/as...
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- Reposted by Matthew HolfordIssue 42.2 of Parergon was released just before Christmas. A special issue focused on medieval English attitudes to the outside world, Alison Hudson's article 'Elephants in English Literature, Art, and Material Culture before the Reign of Henry III' is currently open access! doi.org/10.1353/pgn....
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- Reposted by Matthew HolfordUniversity of Southern Denmark, 3-year postdoc in Medieval Studies memorients.com/news/univers...
- #DigiBodAdvent has been a bit erratic but we are finishing strongly with a major new acquisition from 2024, digitized 2025, the 13th-century French bible which belonged to Jean II of France and later to Humfrey duke of Gloucester the great benefactor of Oxford's university library
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- Metadata nerdiness AND the example manuscript has line numbering in 5s between coloumns
- #DigiBodAdvent #17 is the crusading treatise of Marino Sanudo the elder with its remarkable maps, miniatures and binding: MS. Tanner 190. digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/1fee... In the French royal library, in England by the mid-15th century.
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- #DigiBodAdvent returns after an illness-enforced hiatus with the lovely uncial Acts of the Apostles in MS. Selden Supra 30. This manuscript had its 15 minutes of fame back in 2022 (www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022...) but we only digitized it in 2025 - so it makes this year's list!
- #DigiBodAdvent 11, something for the papyrologists from a batch just published on Digital Bodleian this week, a fragment of an early uncial Livy. Found at Oxyrhynchus. 📜 MS. Lat. class. f. 5 (P) digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/4f0e...
- Reposted by Matthew HolfordThe ad for the second postdoctoral position on our @leverhulme.ac.uk Britain’s Early Medieval Letters project is now live. We’re looking for an Old English specialist (who also works with Latin). 32-month FT post. Deadline for apps is 16 Jan 🙂 jobs.kent.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...
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- #DigiBodAdvent day 10, one for the Middle English and Scots fans, the Sinclair manuscript (MS. Arch. Selden. B. 24). The earliest Scottish vernacular verse anthology and the unique witness to "The Kingis Quair" attributed to James I. digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/ea06...
- Our photographers really did an amazing job with this. Look closely at the images and you can see that each leaf is encapsulated in melinex.
- #DigiBodAdvent day 9 is the Tanner Bede (MS. Tanner 10). In a slightly sorry state owing to submersion near Wallingford in the 18th century but still a priceless example of the renewal of English book culture in the early 10th century. 📜 digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/6285...
- 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...
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- #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... 📜
- 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...
- Reposted by Matthew HolfordMy 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...
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- #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...
- #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...
- 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
- Reposted by Matthew Holford15 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...
- 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
- Reposted by Matthew HolfordAre 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/
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- Reposted by Matthew HolfordA 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/...
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- Reposted by Matthew Holford📣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
- Reposted by Matthew HolfordAnnouncing 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
- Reposted by Matthew HolfordGreat news! This is out: Opening the black box of EEBO academic.oup.com/dsh/advance-...
- Reposted by Matthew Holford3-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
- Reposted by Matthew HolfordMade 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/]
- Just found out about this amazing example of #manuscript #recycling . The whole manuscript is made up from the margins of an earlier liturgical manuscript, cut out and rearranged (hence the unusual format), the (mostly) blank margins then used to copy various magical texts in the mid 16th century.
- The Tanner Bede is on Digital Bodleian! #MedievalSky 📜 digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/6285...
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- Reposted by Matthew HolfordThese "Teaching the Codex" blog posts introducing collation formulas from Dr. Sian Witherden @sianwitherden.bsky.social have particularly good illustrations that make it clear for students learning about it for the first time. 📜 teachingthecodex.com/author/teach...
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- Still time to sign up!
- Next Wednesday 8th October, 12.30-1.30: Jiří Vnouček on "A Tale of Two Parchments" - insular and continental parchment preparation. In person: @bodleian.ox.ac.uk Weston Library, Lecture Theatre Or livestreamed. Free: book here visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/oct25/...
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- Reposted by Matthew HolfordCFP: “Shaping the Word: the Form and Use of Biblical Manuscripts in the Early Medieval West” at Durham University in July 2026. We are interested in a wide range of papers exploring ways in which scriptural texts (produced roughly c. 500-1000) were presented and used.
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- Next Wednesday 8th October, 12.30-1.30: Jiří Vnouček on "A Tale of Two Parchments" - insular and continental parchment preparation. In person: @bodleian.ox.ac.uk Weston Library, Lecture Theatre Or livestreamed. Free: book here visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/oct25/...
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- Enjoying the historically informed street signs in Basel. Why don't we see this in more places?
- Call for papers, Leeds IMC 2026 - Big data and medieval manuscripts. Please consider submitting a proposal!
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- In awe of the Comms person at Cambridge who has made a textual emendation based on a change of a single letter go viral.
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- Great postdoc on the INSULAR project for an early medieval Germanist with manuscript interests
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