The Lyell Lectures 2023: In the Scholar’s Workshop

This year's Lyell Lectures series at the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford will focus on the role of amanuenses in scholarly work in early modern Europe, particularly the Northern Renaissance ca 1500–1630, while noting parallels with both earlier and later European contexts.

A recent focus on practices and working methods in the history of science and of scholarship has revealed a gap between the representation that scholars worked along, and the reality that their work was frequently carried out with the help of others. The lectures will be given by Professor Ann M. Blair who will focus on case studies including Erasmus, Martin Bucer, Adrien Turnèbe, and Petrus Ramus, among others to explore this recent research.

* Lecture 1: Amanuenses in the longue durée
  May 23, 2023, 5.15–6.15pm (BST)

* Lecture 2: Invisible and visible
  May 25, 2023, 5.15–6.35pm

* Lecture 3: Mechanical and intellectual
  May 30, 2023, 5.15–6.35pm

* Lecture 4: Complicating attributions
  June 1, 2023, 5.15–6.35pm

* Lecture 5: Shaping legacies
  June 6, 2023, 5.15–6.35pm
 
Professor Ann M. Blair is Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor at Harvard University. She specialises in the cultural and intellectual history of early modern Europe. Her interests include the history of the book and of reading, the history of the disciplines and of scholarship, and the history of interactions between science and religion.

This lecture series takes place in-person at the Sir Victor Blank Lecture Theatre, Weston Library, Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BG. Lecture 1 will also be available online via livestream. Tickets are free but must be booked in advance. More details here. All of the lectures will be available to watch online after the series has concluded.

The Lyell Readership in Bibliography at Oxford University is endowed by a bequest from James Patrick Ronaldson Lyell (1871–1948), a solicitor, book collector and bibliographer. Each year since 1952, a distinguished scholar has been elected to deliver the lectures, usually six in number, on any topic of bibliography, broadly conceived.