Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles (OUSB)

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Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles (OUSB)

The Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles exists in order to promote the knowledge and appreciat Witney: Society of Bibliophiles, 2006

The Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles is an association of bibliophiles and book collectors run by undergraduate and postgraduate students at the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1950 by a group of young bibliophiles headed by John Granger, Bent Juel-Jensen and R. John Rickett, and the first meeting was held in Hilary Term of 1951. For fifty years the Society held regular lectures,

visits and other events during the University terms, and many of the leading bibliographers, librarians, book collectors, booksellers and other literary figures of the period spoke to the Society or hosted visits. Many of the Society's junior members went on to become prominent figures in the world of books. One of the most influential members was John Sparrow, Warden of All Souls, who encouraged a love of books and manuscripts in a generation of students, and hosted a termly 'Warden's Meeting' at which members were encouraged to bring items from their own libraries to pass round and say a few words about; the tradition of the Warden's Meeting continued after 1986, when the Warden himself was too ill to host the meetings and, indeed, after his death in 1992. Another of the Society's traditions was the quality of the termly programme cards ('Termcards'), often produced by the leading printers and private presses of the age. After a period of difficulties in the last decade of the twentieth century, the Society ceased all activity in 2000, when interest among the students had declined so far that a Junior Committee could no longer be raised. However, due to the efforts of a new generation of Oxford students, aided by a few surviving members of the former Society, the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles was refounded in Trinity Term 2008 and became fully active in Michaelmas term in the same year. The revived Society's traditions (visits, talks, hand-printed termcards, and the Warden's Meeting) continue to this day. A compact history of the old Society, with handsome reproductions of its termcards, can be found in Paul W. Nash and Justin Howes, Bibliophiles at Oxford: a celebration of fifty years of the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles, 1951-2000, with descriptive notes on the term cards.

26/04/2023

Programme, Trinity Term 2023
If you are interested in attending any of our events, please, in the first instance, send an e-mail to [email protected] asking to be added to the mailing list. Numbers for events are capped. RSVPs will be required. Priority will be given to paying members (membership options: https://oxfordbibliophiles.mystrikingly.com/ ). More information (including possible cancellation or rescheduling) will be provided through e-mails in due course.

Week 1 Friday 28 april 4.00 - 5.00 pm
ROBERT BOLICK, KATHY BRUCE, & ALASTAIR NOBLE
Fifty Artists’ Books in Homage to Mallarmé’s ‘Un Coup de Dés’
OAKESHOTT ROOM, LINCOLN COLLEGE

Week 2 Friday 5 may 6.00 - 7.00 pm
Oxford in Print from the Private Collection of Daniel Crouch

Week 3 Friday 12 may 4.00 - 5.00 PM
ELIZABETH ADAMS
The Robert Ross Memorial Collection of Oscar Wilde
at University College
10 MERTON STREET

Week 4 Friday 19 may 7.00 - 7.45 pm
Tom LINTERN-MOLE
Tour of Firsts, London’s Rare Book Fair
SAATCHI GALLERY, CHELSEA

Week 5 Friday 26 may 4.00 - 5.00 pm
ALEC SCHELLINX & SARAH WHEALE
Sybil Pye and Women Bookbinders at the Turn of the 20th Century
Horton Room, WESTON LIBRARY

Week 6 FRIDAY 2 june 4.00 - 6.00 pm
Dr Paul W. Nash
Hand-Printing on Vellum
Schola musicae, old bodleian library

Week 7 saturday 10 june 1.00 - 5.00 pm
VICTORIA HALL
Historical Paste Paper Workshop
ERTEGUN HOUSE, 37A ST GILES'

Week 8 thursday 15 june 3.00 - 5.00 pm
GLENN BARTLEY & ROYAL LIBRARY STAFF
Tour of the Royal Library, Archives, and Bindery
WINDSOR CASTLE

Week 9 18 june 2–4 pm
Summer Garden Party
Worcester COLLEGE

28/12/2022

Programme, Hilary Term 2023

If you are interested in attending any of our events, please, in the first instance, send an e-mail to [email protected] asking to be added to the mailing list. Numbers for events are capped. RSVPs will be required. Priority will be given to paying members (membership options: https://oxfordbibliophiles.mystrikingly.com/ ). More information (including possible cancellation or rescheduling) will be provided through e-mails in due course.

Week 1 SATURDAY 21 January 4.00 - 5.00 pm
NICOLAS BARKER
'Oxford Book Collectors Old and New'
OAKESHOTT ROOM, LINCOLN COLLEGE

Week 2 Friday 27 January 4.00 - 6.00 pm
Dr BEN HENRY & Dr ENRICO PRODI
Greek Poets from the Oxyrhynchus Papyri Collection
SACKLER LIBRARY

Week 3 Friday 3 February 2.00 - 4.00 PM
ROBERT HARDING & BRYAN MAGGS
Visit to the Wormsley Library
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE

Week 4 Friday 10 February 3.30 - 4.30 pm
NAOMI TILEY & STEWART TILEY
Treasures from the Library of Balliol College
HISTORIC COLLECTIONS CENTRE, ST CROSS CHURCH
&
5.00 - 6.00 pm
GABRIEL SEWELL
Visit to the Library of Christ Church

Week 5 Friday 17 February 4.00 - 6.00 pm
Dr SARAH CUSK
Visit to the Library of Lincoln College
&
Tour of the Private Collection of Prof. Henry Woudhuysen
RECTOR'S LODGING, LINCOLN COLLEGE

Week 6 FRIDAY 24 February 3.30 - 4.30 pm
JOANNE FERRARI & JAMES LEGG
French Artists’ Books from the Strachan Collection
TAYLOR INSTITUTION LIBRARY

SUNDAY 26 February 2.00 - 6.00 pm
FLORA GINN
Calligraphy Workshop
ERTEGUN HOUSE, 37A ST GILES’

Week 7 Friday 3 March 3.30 - 6.00 pm
Dr CLARE POLLARD & Dr ALESSANDRO BIANCHI
Japanese Books and Manuscripts
at the Ashmolean Museum and the Bodleian Library

Week 8 Saturday 11 – Sunday 12 March
Visit to the Blackie House Library and Museum (the Collection of William Zachs), McNaughtan’s Bookshop, and the Signet Library
EDINBURGH

If you are interested in attending any of our events, please, in the first instance, send an e-mail to bibliophiles.soci...

09/10/2022

If you are interested in attending any of our events, please, in the first instance, send an e-mail to [email protected] asking to be added to the mailing list. This is our primary channel of communication. This page is rarely monitored. Most events are oversubscribed and open to members of the Society only to ballot for. Only those on our mailing list will receive notice of ballots and of changes to our programme (e.g. cancellations, postponements or additions). To pay membership of the Society (distinct from membership of our mailing list), either in cash or by bank transfer, please view the options on this page:
https://oxfordbibliophiles.mystrikingly.com/ .

The Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles provides a convivial meeting ground for those interested in any aspect of book-collecting, or the history and production of books and manuscripts. We meet weekly during the academic terms in various venues around Oxford (and further afield) for visits to...

08/10/2022

Michaelmas 2022 Programme

Most events are oversubscribed and open to members of the Society only to ballot for. Only those on our mailing list will receive notice of ballots and of changes to our programme (e.g. cancellations, postponements or additions). To join our mailing list, please send an e-mail to [email protected] asking to be added to the mailing list. To pay membership of the Society (distinct from membership of our mailing list), either in cash or by bank transfer, please view the options on this page:
https://oxfordbibliophiles.mystrikingly.com/ .

1st Week
Friday 14 October, 4.30 - 5.30 pm
Dr CHRISTOPHER DE HAMEL
'The Wi******er Bible'

2nd Week
Friday 21 October, 4.00 - 6.00 pm
Dr SARA TREVISAN & SUZANNA BEAUPRÉ
Tour of Sokol Books: Illuminated Manuscripts and Incunabula
&
Tour of Peter Harrington: Private Press and Fine Bindings

3rd Week
Monday 24 October, 2.00 -3.00 pm
HEATHER BARR & EMMA CARTER
Tour of the Old Library and Medieval Crypt of St Edmund Hall
&
'Poetry, Story, and Scape in the Work of Kevin Crossley-Holland'

Thursday 27 October, 4.00 - 6.00 pm
Dr SCOTT SCULLION
Early Printed Books in Ancient Greek
&
Dr ANDREW DUNNING, Dr MELINDA LETTS, & OWEN MCKNIGHT
Early Printed Books in Latin

4th Week
Sunday 6 November, 1.00 - 6.00 pm
LOUISE BROCKMAN
Paper Marbling Workshop

5th Week
Friday 11 November, 5.00 - 6.00 pm
Dr MATTHEW SHAW
Visit to the Library of The Queen's College
&
The Peet Library of Egyptology

6th Week
Friday 18 November, 5.00 - 6.00 pm
Dr MARK BYFORD
'Tales of the Unexpected: Some Surprise Discoveries Collecting Tudor and Jacobean Books and Manuscripts in the 21st Century'

7th Week
Friday 25 November, 5.30 - 6.30 pm
GAYE MORGAN
The John Sparrow Collection at the Library of All Souls College

8th Week
Thursday 1 December, 3.00 -4.00 pm
MARGARET FORD
Tour of the Books & Manuscripts Department at Christie's

9th Week
Monday 5 December, 5.30 - 6.30 pm
Prof. HENRY WOUDHUYSEN
The Warden's Meeting

Thursday 8 December, 11.00 am - 3.30 pm
SARAH WHALE & ROBIN HARCOURT WILLIAMS
Visit to Hatfield House

29/05/2022

Printing of our term-card at St James Park Press.

27/04/2022

Term card – Trinity Term 2022
RSVP (required) to [email protected] if you wish to attend an event.

1st week

Tuesday 26th April
3.00 - 4.00 pm
JANE EAGAN
Tour of the Oxford Conservation Consortium
Grove Cottage, St Cross Road
4.00 - 5.00 pm
ANNE CHESHER
Visit to the Old Library of Magdalen College

Friday 29th & Saturday 30th April
Chelsea Rare Book Fair
(Complimentary tickets available courtesy of Blackwell’s Rare Books)
Chelsea Old Town Hall

2nd week
Monday 2nd May, 4.00 - 5.30 pm
JOHN LEIGHFIELD CBE
'Putting X on the Map: from Gough to Google’
Langford Room, Lincoln College

3rd week
Friday 13th May, 3.00 - 4.30 pm
PIPPA SHIRLEY
French 17th- and 18th-Century Bindings from the Collection of
Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild
Waddesdon Manor

4th week
Friday 20th May, 4.00 - 6.00 pm
RICHARD LAWRENCE & Dr PAUL W. NASH
Letterpress Printing Workshop
Schola Musicae, Old Bodleian Library

5th week
Tuesday 24th May, 4.00 - 5.15 pm
SCOTT MANDELBROTE
‘Bent Juel-Jensen and Oxford Bibliophilia’
Weston Library

6th week
Friday 3rd June, 4.30 - 6.00 pm
DR TITUS BOEDER, BENJAMIN MAGGS, & DR HAZEL TUBMAN
Visit to Maggs Brothers: Private Press, Early British and Continental Books, & Japanese Photography
48 Bedford Square, London

7th week
Thursday 9th June, 3.00 - 4.00 pm
COLIN HARRISON
Lucien Pissarro and the Eragny Press
Ashmolean Museum

8th week
Friday 17th June, 10.00 am - 4.00 pm
KATE HOLLAND
Bookbinding Workshop
(Sponsored by Designer Bookbinders)
Langford Room, Lincoln College

9th week
Tuesday 21st June, 2.00 - 4.00 pm
Summer Garden Party
New College Cloisters

16/01/2022

Term card – Hilary Term 2022
RSVP to [email protected] if you wish to attend an event.

Week 1 Friday 21 January 4.30 pm
ROBERT BOLICK
Private Collection of Artists’ Books
LANGFORD ROOM, LINCOLN COLLEGE

Week 2 Thursday 27 January 3.00 pm
PAT RANDLE
Tour of the Whittington Press
WHITTINGTON COURT, CHELTENHAM

Week 3 Thursday 3 February 5.15 pm
RICHARD OVENDEN
Photo Books from the Collection
of Sir Charles Chadwyck-Healey
WESTON LIBRARY

Week 4 Friday 11 February 4.30 pm
GILES MANDELBROTE
Visit to Lambeth Palace Library

Week 5 Friday 18 February 3.00 pm
Dr CHRISTOPHER SKELTON-FOORD
Visit to the Library of New College

Week 6 Tuesday 22 February 4.00 pm
MARK BAINBRIDGE
Visit to the Library of Worcester College
Daniel and Nonesuch Press Collection

Week 7 Thursday 3 March 4.30 pm
Dr JULIA WALWORTH
Visit to the Library of Merton College

Saturday 5 & Sunday 6 March
Oxford Fine Press Book Fair
EXAMINATION SCHOOLS

Week 8 Tuesday 8 March 5.30 pm
Professor HENRY WOUDHUYSEN
The Warden’s Meeting
RECTOR’S LODGINGS, LINCOLN COLLEGE

24/10/2021

A lovely visit was had by the Oxford University Society of Bibliophiles (OUSB), organised by our own Eric Sheng.
Shout out to Christ Church, Oxford and Pembroke College, Oxford libraries for the use of their bookrests!
Books are for life, after all...

17/10/2021

09/10/2021

Our events for Michaelmas 2021:

Week 1
Wednesday 13 October, 5:30 p.m.
Welcome drinks
Ertegun House, 37a St Giles'
Unfortunately, our hand-printed 70th anniversary term card (run of 150 copies; black-and-white proofs attached) will not be printed in time for the Welcome drinks, but members can receive it at subsequent events. We accept membership fees in cash.

Week 2
Thursday 21 October, 2 p.m.
Visit to the Oxford Union Society Library with Tom Corrick, Librarian-in-Charge

Week 3
Thursday 28 October, 5.30 p.m.
Designer Bookbinders International Bookbinding Competition 2022, with Stuart Brockman and Madeline Slaven
Weston Library

Week 4
Monday 1 November, 5.30 p.m.
Paul W. Nash on collecting books
Ertegun House, 37a St Giles'

Week 5
Friday 12 November, 30 p.m.
Visit to the private collection of Nigel Hamway

Week 6
Wednesday 17 November, 7 p.m.
Virtual visit to the Elizabethan Club of Yale with Basie Gitlin, Librarian

Week 7
Tuesday 22 November, 5 p.m.
Virtual visit to the Grolier Club of New York with Meghan Constantinou, Librarian

Week 8
Thursday 2 December, 5:45 p.m.
Warden’s Meeting, as guests of Henry Woudhuysen
Rector’s Lodgings, Lincoln College

03/06/2020

Bibliophiles may be interested in this talk: Collecting the Qur'an : Tuesday, 9 June, 1800 BST

Want to know more about the history of the early printed Qur'an in the Muslim world? Nick McBurney will be discussing this surprisingly under-explored subject with Roxana Kashani (Bloomsbury Auctions) discussing the manuscript Qur'an, and Alex Day (Bernard Quaritch) on the Qur'an in the West.

It will be on Zoom with a runtime of about an hour, including Q&A.

If you would like to attend, please email Sara Trevisan ([email protected]) to register your interest and receive details for the webinar.

This is the final seminar-turned-webinar in the series on book collecting arranged by the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association Educational Trust & the Institute of English Studies.

21/05/2020

It is with the greatest sadness that OUSB has heard of the death of Colin Franklin, beloved Honorary President and longest standing member of the Bibliophiles.

Perfect host and perfect bibliophile, The Warden's Meeting at his house in Culham was an inspirational termly event; his stories of priceless rarities and picaresque provenance fired even the most stolid into a rapturous stupor for the love of books.

We hope to organise a fitting memorial in due course, and would be delighted to hear from anyone who would like to contribute.

05/05/2020

A competition which will interest many Oxford Bibliophiles. We encourage you to enter!

17/10/2019

Term cards out! Be quick to get your membership, if you want to receive a fancy hand-printed programme of events for MT19!

WEEK 2 event - visit to Balliol’s Historic Collection. If interested, drop us a line at [email protected] and book your place.

Happy early weekend, Bibs!

16/10/2019

Ready for OUSB’s welcome drinks?! We’re eager to meet you all!

09/10/2019

Bibliophiles! Book-lovers! Everyone! The OUSB is at the Freshers' Fair! Come along tomorrow to check out our new programme of events for Michaelmas Term. Otherwise, here is the term card. See you all next week at our Welcome Drinks!

01/05/2019

Happy May 1st though to bibliophiles today probably ain’t an exception

Carl Spitzweg, The Bookworm, 1850

15/02/2019

Thank you to all who joined for a truly terrific visit to the library at Christ Church, Oxford led by their wonderful librarian Steven Archer. We explored the joys Alice's Wonderland and many centuries prior!

16/01/2019

Calling all bibliophiles! OUSB has arranged another terrific term ahead for you in Hilary. Check out the details on our website (http://oxfordbibliophiles.strikingly.com) or below!

01/12/2018

03/10/2018

Calling all freshers! Come find the Society of Bibliophiles at Fresher's Fair today and tomorrow and hear about the great events we have planned for you this year!

08/08/2018

Pryor-Johnson Rare Books

Sunday 12 August 2018, 3 pm
Bunhill Fields, 38 City Road London EC1Y 1AU

William Blake's new gravestone will be unveiled. We'd be there if we could... go for us, if you can!

18/05/2018

Dear Bibliophiles,

Nicolas Barker was coming from York today. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen reasons, Nicolas's trains have accumulated substantial delays over the last few hours. As a result, Nicolas will not be able to reach Oxford in time today.

Hopefully, we will be able to reschedule his talk sometime during this or the next term.

With our deepest apologies,
OUSB Junior Committee

08/01/2018

The resource cannot be found.

Tomorrow, 9th January, Dr Geri Della Rocca de Candal will be talking about the foundation and re-foundation of the Society of Bibliophiles http://www.aba.org.uk/About/Events-Calendar/ABA-IES-Seminar-Student-Bibliophiles. All are very welcome.

08/11/2016

Oxford: Oxford collections - BRAHMS Online

Please join us TOMORROW at 2pm at the Department of Plant Sciences for what promises to be a fascinating tour of the Oxford University Herbaria collection! Dr. Stephen Harris will be speaking to us on the topic ‘Linking seventeenth-century book herbaria and rare botanical books and manuscripts.’

*We are limited to 20 spots for this event. Thank you to those who have RSVP'd. Remaining spots will be on a first come, first served basis.*

http://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/oxford/Herbaria

BRAHMS Online distributes Botanical Research and Herbarium Management Software (BRAHMS) and also allows publication of BRAHMS curated data to custom web sites using built-in services. Research and reporting tools are provided to work with published data

05/10/2016

FRESHERS! come and find us in room 9, stall 543! 💥📖📚✨💛💥🎉

18/05/2016

TODAY, 3:50pm - visit to the Bodleian Library Middle Eastern Manuscripts Collection, hosted by Alasdair Watson, Bahari Curator of Persian Collections!

See you all at the Weston Library main entrance!

20/04/2016

OXFORD PREMIER FAIR Book Fair - The Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association

Hello all,

This weekend (23rd and 24th) there is a large rare book fair located at Oxford Brookes. If you go to Blackwell's bookshop you can get a free ticket for the event; otherwise attendance is two pounds.

http://www.pbfa.org/book-fairs/oxford-premier-fair/4669

31/03/2016

The following event is open at a reduced price to members of the OUSB -

'To celebrate the first birthday of the Weston Library, we are pleased to extend our invitation to the Oxford Society of Bibliophiles to join the Friends of the Bodleian for a unique ‘behind-the-scenes’ tour of the Weston Library on Sunday, 24 April. The tour will include presentations at the Centre for Digital Scholarship, Imaging Studio, Conservation Workshop, and Visiting Scholars’ Centre. Famous Benugo coffee and cakes will be served on the roof terrace with spectacular views of Oxford spires. 12.30pm, 2pm and 2.15pm are the timings at which places are still available. We are happy to offer them at the same price they are available to our members, £16. When booking, please mention to the Friends’ Administrator the Oxford Society of Bibliophiles offer.'

Email [email protected] to reserve a place.

Address

University Of Oxford
Oxford

Website

http://oxfordbibliophiles.strikingly.com/

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