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Merton College Library
Merton College Library (in Merton College, Oxford) is one of the earliest libraries in England and the oldest academic library in the world still in continuous daily use. The library is located in several parts of the college, and houses a priceless collection of early printed books and more than 300 medieval manuscripts. The historic collection was initially built through benefactions, including manuscripts donated by the medieval clergyman William Reade. The library also contains early printed books from the personal libraries of Griffin Higgs and Henry Kent, who originally donated approximately 600 and 800 volumes respectively. The main collection runs to approximately 70,000 volumes. The oldest part, known as the Upper Library, is on the first floor of two orthogonal ranges of buildings that were built around 1373 by William Humberville as part of the completion of Mob Quad, one of the first collegiate quadrangles. The Upper Library was improved in the 16th century under ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands within the British Isles. Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. The total area of the United Kingdom is , with an estimated 2020 population of more than 67 million people. The United Kingdom has evolved from a series of annexations, unions and separations of constituent countries over several hundred years. The Treaty of Union between the Kingdom of England (which included Wales, annexed in 1542) and the Kingdom of Scotland in 170 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir Henry Savile
Sir Henry Savile (30 November 154919 February 1622) was an English scholar and mathematician, Warden of Merton College, Oxford, and Provost of Eton. He endowed the Savilian chairs of Astronomy and of Geometry at Oxford University, and was one of the scholars who translated the New Testament from Greek into English. He was a Member of the Parliament of England for Bossiney in Cornwall in 1589, and Dunwich in Suffolk in 1593. Life He was the son of Henry Savile of Over Bradley, Stainland, near Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, a member of an old county family, the Saviles of Methley, and of his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Ramsden. He was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, where he matriculated in 1561. He then became a Fellow of Merton College in 1565. He established a reputation as a Greek scholar and mathematician by voluntary lectures on Ptolemy's ''Almagest'', and in 1575 became Junior Proctor of the university. In 1578 he travelled on the continent of Europe, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jay Gatsby
Jay Gatsby (originally named James Gatz) is the titular fictional character of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel ''The Great Gatsby''. The character is an enigmatic ''nouveau riche'' millionaire who lives in a luxurious mansion on Long Island where he often hosts extravagant parties and who allegedly gained his vast fortune by illicit bootlegging during prohibition in the United States. Fitzgerald based many details about the fictional character on Max Gerlach, a mysterious neighbor and World War I veteran whom the author met while living in New York City during the raucous Jazz Age. Like Gatsby, Gerlach threw lavish parties, never wore the same shirt twice, used the phrase "old sport", claimed to be educated at Oxford University, and fostered myths about himself, including that he was a relation of the German Kaiser. The character of Jay Gatsby has been analyzed by scholars for many decades and has given rise to a number of critical interpretations. Scholars have posited that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Great Gatsby
''The Great Gatsby'' is a 1925 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts First-person narrative, first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan. The novel was inspired by a youthful romance Fitzgerald had with socialite Ginevra King, and the riotous parties he attended on Long Island's North Shore (Long Island), North Shore in 1922. Following a move to the French Riviera, Fitzgerald completed a rough draft of the novel in 1924. He submitted it to editor Maxwell Perkins, who persuaded Fitzgerald to revise the work over the following winter. After making revisions, Fitzgerald was satisfied with the text, but remained ambivalent about the book's title and considered several alternatives. Painter Francis Cugat's cover art greatly impressed Fitzgerald, and he incorporated aspects of it into the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Max Beerbohm
Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm (24 August 1872 – 20 May 1956) was an English essayist, parodist and caricaturist under the signature Max. He first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist. He was the drama critic for the '' Saturday Review'' from 1898 until 1910, when he relocated to Rapallo, Italy. In his later years he was popular for his occasional radio broadcasts. Among his best-known works is his only novel, ''Zuleika Dobson'', published in 1911. His caricatures, drawn usually in pen or pencil with muted watercolour tinting, are in many public collections. Early life Born in 57 Palace Gardens Terrace, London which is now marked with a blue plaque, Henry Maximilian Beerbohm was the youngest of nine children of a Lithuanian-born grain merchant, Julius Ewald Edward Beerbohm (1811–1892). His mother was Eliza Draper Beerbohm (c. 1833–1918), the sister of Julius's late first wife. Although the Beerbohms were supposed by some to be of Jewish descent, on looking ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrew Irvine (mountaineer)
Andrew Comyn "Sandy" Irvine (8 April 1902 – 8 June 1924) was an English mountaineer who took part in the 1924 British Everest Expedition, the third British expedition to the world's highest (8,848 m) mountain, Mount Everest. While attempting the first ascent of Mount Everest, he and his climbing partner George Mallory disappeared somewhere high on the mountain's northeast ridge and died. The pair were last sighted only a few hundred metres from the summit, and it is unknown whether the pair reached the summit before they perished. Mallory's body was found in 1999, but Irvine's body and portable camera have never been found. Early life Irvine was born in Birkenhead, Merseyside, one of six children of historian William Fergusson Irvine (1869–1962) and Lilian Davies-Colley (1870–1950). His father's family had Scottish and Welsh roots, while his mother was from an old Cheshire family. He was a cousin of journalist and writer Lyn Irvine, and also of pioneering female s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astrolabe
An astrolabe ( grc, ἀστρολάβος ; ar, ٱلأَسْطُرلاب ; persian, ستارهیاب ) is an ancient astronomical instrument that was a handheld model of the universe. Its various functions also make it an elaborate inclinometer and an analog calculation device capable of working out several kinds of problems in astronomy. In its simplest form it is a metal disc with a pattern of wires, cutouts, and perforations that allows a user to calculate astronomical positions precisely. Historically used by astronomers, it is able to measure the altitude above the horizon of a celestial body, day or night; it can be used to identify stars or planets, to determine local latitude given local time (and vice versa), to survey, or to triangulate. It was used in classical antiquity, the Islamic Golden Age, the European Middle Ages and the Age of Discovery for all these purposes. The astrolabe's importance comes not only from the early developments into the study of astron ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Welsh Bible
Parts of the Bible have been translated into Welsh since at least the 15th century, but the most widely used translation of the Bible into Welsh for several centuries was the 1588 translation by William Morgan, '' Y Beibl cyssegr-lan sef Yr Hen Destament, a'r Newydd'' as revised in 1620. The ''Beibl Cymraeg Newydd'' ("new Welsh bible") was published in 1988 and revised in 2004. Beibl.net is a translation in colloquial Welsh which was completed in 2013. Historical versions 15th century version Several 19th century sources quote the story that a translation from the Latin Vulgate was in existence in 1470 (it is said that the 16th century Bishop Richard Davies claimed to have seen, as a boy, such a translation in a manuscript at Celydd Ifan, the house of an uncle; and another writer asserts that part of this private manuscript survived until the nineteenth century). However, Professor Glanmor Williams dismissed the idea that the whole Bible had been translated into Welsh before ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elizabeth I Of England
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, his second wife, who was executed when Elizabeth was two years old. Anne's marriage to Henry was annulled, and Elizabeth was for a time declared Royal bastard, illegitimate. Her half-brother Edward VI ruled until his death in 1553, bequeathing the crown to Lady Jane Grey and ignoring the claims of his two half-sisters, the Catholic Church, Catholic Mary I of England, Mary and the younger Elizabeth, in spite of Third Succession Act, statute law to the contrary. Edward's will was set aside and Mary became queen, deposing Lady Jane Grey. During Mary's reign, Elizabeth was imprisoned for nearly a year on suspicion of supporting Protestant reb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lectern
A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon. A lectern is usually attached to a stand or affixed to some other form of support. To facilitate eye contact and improve posture when facing an audience, lecterns may have adjustable height and slant. People reading from a lectern, called lectors, generally do so while standing. In pre-modern usage, the word ''lectern'' was used to refer specifically to the "reading desk or stand ... from which the Scripture lessons ('' lectiones'') ... are chanted or read." One 1905 dictionary states that "the term is properly applied only to the class mentioned hurch book standsas independent of the pulpit." By the 1920s, however, the term was being used in a broader sense; for example, in reference to a memorial service in Carnegie Hall, it was stated that "the lectern from which the speakers talked was enveloped in black." Academi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Bodley
Sir Thomas Bodley (2 March 1545 – 28 January 1613) was an English diplomat and scholar who founded the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Origins Thomas Bodley was born on 2 March 1545, in the second-to-last year of the reign of King Henry VIII, in the city of Exeter in Devon. He was one of the seven sons of John Bodley (d. 15 Oct. 1591) of Exeter, a Protestant merchant who chose foreign exile rather than staying in England under the Roman Catholic government of Queen Mary (). John's father, also John Bodley, was a younger son of the gentry family of Bodley of Dunscombe, near Crediton in Devon. Thomas's mother was Joan Hone, a daughter and co-heiress of Robert Hone of Ottery St Mary, Devon. Thomas's younger brother was Sir Josias Bodley, knighted in Ireland by the Earl of Devon. Childhood and education The family, including Thomas' younger brother Josias Bodley (and the ten-year-old Nicholas Hilliard, who had been attached to the household by his parents, friends of Bodley), soug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Window
A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent material, a sash set in a frame in the opening; the sash and frame are also referred to as a window. Many glazed windows may be opened, to allow ventilation, or closed, to exclude inclement weather. Windows may have a latch or similar mechanism to lock the window shut or to hold it open by various amounts. In addition to this, many modern day windows may have a window screen or mesh, often made of aluminum or fibreglass, to keep bugs out when the window is opened. Types include the eyebrow window, fixed windows, hexagonal windows, single-hung, and double-hung sash windows, horizontal sliding sash windows, casement windows, awning windows, hopper windows, tilt, and slide windows (often door-sized), tilt and turn windows, transom windows, sid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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