The Lyell Readership in Bibliography is an endowed annual lecture series given at Oxford University. Instituted in 1952 by a bequest from the solicitor, book collector and bibliographer James Patrick Ronaldson Lyell (1871–1948

the series has continued down to the present day. Together with the Panizzi Lectures at the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...

and the Sandars Lectures at

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, it is considered one of the major British bibliographical lecture series.

Lectures

* 1952–1953 Neil Ripley Ker: English Manuscripts in the Century after the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conq ...

* 1954–1955

Walter Wilson Greg Sir Walter Wilson Greg (9 July 1875 – 4 March 1959), known professionally as W. W. Greg, was one of the leading bibliographers and Shakespeare scholars of the 20th century. Family and education Greg was born at Wimbledon Common in 1875. ...

: Some Aspects and Problems of London Publishing between 1550 and 1650 * 1956–1957 Stanley Arthur Morison: Aspects of Authority and Freedom in Relation to Greco–Latin Script, Inscription, and Type * 1959–1960 Fredson T. Bowers:

Bibliography Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

and

Textual Criticism Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in ...

* 1960–1961 Henry Graham Pollard: The Medieval Book Trade in Oxford * 1961–1962 Philip Hofer: The Artist and the Book in France * 1962–1963 A.N.L. Munby: Three Nineteenth-Century Collectors of Manuscripts * 1963–1964 Jacques Guignard: L'Art de le Reliure en France et l'Action des Bibliophiles: Quelques Aspects de la Question * 1964–1965 William Beattie: Some Aspects of the History of the

Advocates' Library The Advocates Library, founded in 1682, is the law library of the Faculty of Advocates, in Edinburgh. It served as the national deposit library of Scotland until 1925, at which time through an Act of Parliament the National Library of Scotland ...

* 1965–1966 Simon Harcourt Nowell-Smith: International Copyright Law and the Publisher in the Reign of Queen Victoria * 1966–1967 Anthony Ian Doyle: Some English Scribes and

Scriptoria Scriptorium (), literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the writing, copying and illuminating of manuscripts commonly handled by monastic scribes. However, lay scribes and ...

of the Later Middle Ages * 1967–1968 Harry Graham Carter: A View of Early Typography up to about 1600 * 1968–1969 : The Labours of Hercules: Some Observations on the History of

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' w ...

's ''Opera Omnia'' * 1969–1970 William Burton Todd: Scholarly Texts: Variable Techniques and Designs * 1970–1971 Otto Ernst Pächt: The Art of Drawing within the Realm of Medieval Illumination * 1971–1972

Wytze Hellinga Wytze Gerbens Hellinga (20 December, 1908 Haarlem - 16 March, 1985 London) was a Dutch professor of linguistics at the University of Amsterdam. Hellinga was the son of Gerben Hellinga, a school master and Taatske Zwart, a writer of children's ...

: The Bibliography of Early Printing in the Low Countries between 1767 and 1874 * 1972–1973

André Masson André-Aimé-René Masson (4 January 1896 – 28 October 1987) was a French artist. Biography Masson was born in Balagny-sur-Thérain, Oise, but when he was eight his father's work took the family first briefly to Lille and then to Brusse ...

: Le Catalogue Figuratif: A Pictorial Guide to the Contents of European Libraries from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century * 1973–1974 Alan W. Tyson:

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

: Studies in the Genesis of his Music 1803–9 * 1974–1975 T.A.M. Bishop: The Script of

Corbie Corbie (; nl, Korbei) is a commune of the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. Geography The small town is situated up river from Amiens, in the département of Somme and is the main town of the canton of Corbie. It lies i ...

* 1975–1976 David F. Foxon:

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

and the Early Eighteenth-Century Book Trade * 1976–1977 T. Julian Brown: The Insular System of Scripts, c.600–c.850 * 1977–1978 Mme Jeanne Veyrin-Forrer: La Famille Fournier et la Fonderie Typographique en France au XVIIIe Siècle * 1978–1979 Howard Millar Nixon: English Decorated Bookbindings * 1979–1980 Monsignor José Ruysschaert: Recherches Vaticanes sur la Miniature Italienne du Quinzième Siecle * 1980–1981 Ian Gilbert Philip: The Bodleian Library in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries * 1981–1982

Berthold Wolpe Berthold Ludwig Wolpe (29 October 1905 – 5 July 1989) was a German calligrapher, typographer, type designer, book designer and illustrator. He was born into a Jewish family at Offenbach near Frankfurt, emigrated to England soon after the ...

: The Quest for Beauchesne: Contributions to the History of Elizabethan Calligraphy and Print-Making * 1982–1983 Jonathan J.G. Alexander: Creation and Transmission: Methods of Work of Manuscript Illuminators in the Middle Ages * 1983–1984 Robert Shackleton: The Bibliographical History of

Montesquieu Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (; ; 18 January 168910 February 1755), generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher. He is the principa ...

* 1984–1985 Gordon Norton Ray: The

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

Book in France * 1985–1986 Edwin Wolf: Books, Bookmen, and Booksellers in Colonial Philadelphia * 1986–1987 Mary Pollard: Dublin Trade in Books 1550 to 1800 * 1987–1988 D.F. McKenzie: Bibliography and History: Seventeenth-Century England * 1988–1989 Donald H. Reiman: The Study of Modern Manuscripts: Public, Confidential, and Private * 1989–1990 Elizabeth L. Eisenstein:

Grub Street Until the early 19th century, Grub Street was a street close to London's impoverished Moorfields district that ran from Fore Street east of St Giles-without-Cripplegate north to Chiswell Street. It was pierced along its length with narrow en ...

Abroad: Aspects of the French Cosmopolitan Press from the Age of Louis XIV to the French Revolution * 1990–1991 A.R.A. Hobson: Two Renaissance Book-Collectors: Jean Grolier and

Diego Hurtado de Mendoza Diego Hurtado de Mendoza may refer to: * Diego Hurtado de Mendoza (Admiral of Castile) (1367–1404), Admiral of Castile and tenth head of the House of Mendoza * Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, 1st Duke of the Infantado (1417–1479), Spanish noble *Dieg ...

, Their Libraries and Bookbindings * 1991–1992 R.H. Rouse: Book-Producers and Pook-Production in Paris: Family, Shop, and Neighbourhood on the Rue Neuve Notre-Dame, 1200–1500 * 1992–1993 Bernhard Fabian: English Authors and German Publishers in the Eighteenth Century * 1993–1994 Joseph Burney Trapp: Illustrations of

Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credite ...

from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century * 1994–1995

Henri-Jean Martin Henri-Jean Martin (16 January 1924 – 13 January 2007) was a leading authority on the history of the book in Europe, and an expert on the history of writing and printing. He was a leader in efforts to promote libraries in France, and the history ...

: Du Manuscrit au Livre Imprimé: Mise en Page et Mise en Texte des Textes Littéraires Français de la Fin due XVe Siècle au Milieu du XVIIe Siècle * 1995–1996 Peter Beal: In Praise of Scribes: Manuscripts and Their Makers in Seventeenth-Century England * 1996–1997

Robert Darnton Robert Choate Darnton (born May 10, 1939) is an American cultural historian and academic librarian who specializes in 18th-century France. He was director of the Harvard University Library from 2007 to 2016. Life Darnton was born in New Yor ...

: Policing Literature in Eighteenth-Century Paris * 1998–1999 Malcolm B. Parkes: Their Hands before Our Eyes: A Closer Look at Scribes * 1999–2000 David McKitterick: Set in Print: The Fortunes of an Idea, c.1450–1800 * 2000–2001 Rodney Malcolm Thomson: Books and Learning in Twelfth-Century England: The Ending of 'Alter Orbis' * 2001–2002 Bruce Bryning Redford: Designing the

Life of Johnson Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy tr ...

* 2002–2003 Nigel G. Wilson: The World of Books in Byzantium * 2003–2004

Kathleen L. Scott Kathleen L. Scott is a codicologist specialising in 15th-century English manuscripts. An independent scholar, she is associated with the University of Massachusetts. Education and career Scott holds an AB from Colorado College, and an MA an ...

: Suppleatur per Ymaginacionem: Exceptional Images in Later Medieval English Manuscripts * 2004–2005 : Literary Life and Book-Market in Germany under the Swastika 1933–1945 * 2005–2006 Leslie Howsam: Historical Knowledge and British Publishers, 1850–1950: Discipline and Narrative * 2006–2007 Mirella Ferrari: The Scriptorium and Library of

Bobbio Bobbio ( Bobbiese: ; lij, Bêubbi; la, Bobium) is a small town and commune in the province of Piacenza in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. It is located in the Trebbia River valley southwest of the town Piacenza. There is also an abbey and a di ...

* 2007–2008 Kristian Jensen: Collecting

Incunabula In the history of printing, an incunable or incunabulum (plural incunables or incunabula, respectively), is a book, pamphlet, or broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. Incunabula were pro ...

: Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Market — Rediscovering and Re-Creating the Earliest Printed Books in the Eighteenth Century * 2008–2009 Christopher F.R. de Hamel: Fragments in Book Bindings * 2009–2010 Ian Maclean: The Business of Scholarship: The Trade in Latin Books in the Age of Confessions, 1560–1630 * 2010–2011 David Parker: Describing the New Testament * 2011–2012 Lukas Erne: Shakespeare and the Book Trade * 2012–2013 Richard Beadle: Late Medieval English Autograph Writings and Their Uses * 2013–2014 H.R. Woudhuysen: 'Almost Identical': Copying Books in England, 1600–1900 * 2014–2015 Michael Suarez, : The Reach of Bibliography * 2015–2016

Teresa Webber Mary Teresa Josephine Webber, is a British palaeographer, medievalist, and academic. She has been a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge since 1997 and Professor of Palaeography at the Faculty of History, University of Cambridge since 2018. Webb ...

: Public Reading and its Books: Monastic Ideals and Practice in England c. 1000–c. 1300 * 2016–2017 Paul Nelles: The

Vatican Library The Vatican Apostolic Library ( la, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, it, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. Formally es ...

in the Counter-Reformation * 2017–2018

David Pearson David or Dave Pearson may refer to: * David Pearson (librarian) (born 1955), British librarian and scholar * David Pearson (racing driver) (1934–2018), American car racing champion * David Pearson (scientist) (born 1942), Canadian scientist, a ...

: Book Ownership in Stuart England * 2018–2019 Richard Sharpe: Libraries and Books in Medieval England: The Role of Libraries in a Changing Book Economy (recording
here
* 2019–2020 Marc Smith Writing models from manuscript to print: France, England and Europe, c.1400–1800 (recording
here
* 2020–2021

Paul Needham Paul Needham may refer to: *Paul Needham (librarian) Paul Needham (born 1943) is an American academic librarian. From 1998 to 2020, he worked at the Scheide Library at Princeton University. A Guggenheim Fellow and Bibliographical Society Gold ...

: The Genesis, Life, and Afterlife of the Gutenberg Bible (link t
recorded versions here
* 2021–2022

Susan Rankin Susan Kathleen Rankin, FBA, FSA, is a musicologist. Since 2006, she has been Professor of Medieval Music at the University of Cambridge; she has also been a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, since 1981 (having previously been a research fel ...

: From Memory to Written Record: English Liturgical Books and Musical Notations, 900–1150 (first lecture availabl
here

References

{{Books Bibliography History of books Lecture series at the University of Oxford Palaeography Textual criticism 1952 establishments in England Recurring events established in 1952

Lectures

See also

References