Programme of Events 2020 – 2021

Please Note: Unfortunately YBS has had to postpone the first three talks due to Covid-19 and we shall resume our programme once Government restrictions are lifted.

Please continue to visit our website for further information.

14 October 2020

7.15pm AGM

Ed Potten

A SUCCESSION OF UNCERTAINTIES

Dating the Buxheim St Christopher

Ed Potten, Research Associate in the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York will talk about the St Christopher Woodcut, long considered the earliest dated example of European woodblock printing.

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11 November 2020

Rob Shepherd

BINDING AND CONSERVATION

Rob Shepherd of Sangorski & Sutcliffe, a firm of bookbinders established in London in 1901, will discuss binding and conservation in the antiquarian book trade

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9 December 2020

Jim Walvin

AN AFRICAN AND HIS 18^TH CENTURY MEMOIR

James Walvin is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of York. How do we explain the success of the Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, a former slave, published in 1789? The importance of the Narrative is an entrée to the wider story of slavery in the late 18^th century.

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…information and scholarship, entertainment and sociability…

20 January 2021

THE WINTER DINNER

The Dean Court Hotel, York 

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17 February 2021

Holly James-Maddocks

EARLY PRINTED BOOKS ILLUMINATED IN ENGLAND (c.1455-1500)

Dr HollyJames-Maddocks is Lecturer in Medieval Literature and Palaeography at the University of York.

Her talk discusses the illuminators who worked across the manuscript and print divide in late C15 England beginning with the 42-line Bible.

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17 March 2021

Hugh Haughton

EDITING ELIOT

Hugh Haughton is a Professor of English at the University of York, with particular interests in modern literature, Irish poetry, nonsense and life-writing. He will reflect informally on poetry and the archive, drawing on the experience of co-editing (with Valerie Eliot) T.S. Eliot’s letters.

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16 June 2021

MEMBERS’ EVENING AND SUMMER PARTY

Medical Society Rooms 7.00pm

Programme of Events 2019/20

All talks take place on Wednesdays 7.30pm for 8.00pm

in the Lecture Room of the York Medical Society

at 23 Stonegate, York.

 

9th October 2019

7.00pm AGM

N.B. Change to advertised programme.

Professor Derek Pearsall (University of York and Harvard University)

ENGLISH MONASTIC LIBRARIES

 

‪13 November 2019

Richard Foster

LIBRARIES IN THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR AND INTERREGNUM

The fate of important libraries in the Civil War must be a matter of concern to all bibliophiles. Cathedral libraries, college libraries, country house libraries and gentlemen’s libraries were all at risk in a time of widespread disorder. Here is an account of the fortunes and misfortunes of some significant collections in those perilous years. Richard Foster is Fellows’ Librarian and Keeper of Collections at Winchester College.

 

‪11 December 2019

Helen Smith

ON THIN ICE?

In summer 2017, two academics had a bright idea to establish a working letterpress printshop in the Department of English and Related Literature at the University of York. Learn about our trials and tribulations as we get to grips with the business of setting up a The Thin Ice Press and find out about our publications to date, and our future plans. Professor Helen Smith is Head of the Department of English at the University of York.

 

‪22 January 2020

THE WINTER DINNER

The Dean Court Hotel, York (7.00PM)

 

‪12 February 2020

Hannah Thomas and Maureen Pickman

REDISCOVERING THE BAR CONVENT LIBRARY

A revelation of the long-established, richly stocked but relatively little known library at the Bar Convent in York. Hannah Thomas is a Special Collections Manager at the Bar Convent; Maureen Pickman is a doctorial candidate at the University of York.

 

‪11 March 2020

Paul Edmondson

MASTER JOHN HALL, PHYSICIAN; A CASE-BOOK FROM SHAKESPEARE’S STRATFORD

An exploration of the professional activities of Shakespeare’s son-in-law; based on a recent book on the subject. The Revd. Dr Paul Edmondson is Head of Research and Knowledge and Director of the Stratford-upon-Avon Festival for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

 

MEMBERS’ EVENING AND SUMMER PARTY

17^th June 2020: Medical Society Rooms, Stonegate York. (7.00pm)

2018 – 2019 Programme

Please note We have a change to our programme the talk on 13 March 2019 will no longer be as advertised and we welcome back Geoffrey Day.

 

13 March 2019
Geoffrey Day
IN A SIXTEENTH-CENTURY CLASSROOM

Christopher Jonson was the most charismatic and influential schoolmaster in sixteenth-century England. The subsequent achievements of his students are unparalleled. This illustrated talk will explore his methods.

 

Meetings other than the New Year Supper will take place in the Lecture Room of the York Medical Society at 23 Stonegate, York YO1 8AW 7.30pm for 8pm.

 

10 October 2018
7.00pm AGM
Simon Lawrence
THE FLEECE PRESS

The Fleece Press is a one-man enterprise of Simon Lawrence, whose
family made wood blocks for engravers from 1859 until a few years
ago. Since 1980 Simon has designed and printed from his
workshop near Huddersfield, employing letterpress and offset
lithography. He publishes only books that interest him and his
customers; these books are mostly about printmakers. he has been
responsible for major studies of Barnet Freedman, Edward Bawden
and Eric Ravilious. The Fleece Press has a huge contribution to
fine printing in the UK over the past generation.

 

14 November 2018
Peter Liddle
THE WINNING OF THE GREAT WAR

Peter Liddle has spent an academic life time compiling an archive of
the personal experiences of thousands of men and women who lived
through the years of the Great War. He has published several books
of the war based on this archive. In the centenary month of its end,
he will attempt to account for the defeat of Germany and her allies
and suggest how today, we might reasonably reflect on the war.

 

12 December 2018
David Ingram
JOHN RUSKIN’S BOTANICAL BOOKS

Throughout his life John Ruskin celebrated 19th century art critic
painter and social visionary had a fascination with Botany.
He collected a number of significant botanical works and this talk will
reflect on the development of Ruskin’s idiosyncratic ideas concerning
plant nomenclature and classification, and consider his highly
controversial contribution to botanical literature. David Ingram is
honorary professor of the Universities of Edinburgh and Lancaster.

 

23 January 2019
THE WINTER DINNER

The Dean Court Hotel, York (7.00pm)

 

13 February 2019
John Roe
MYSTERIOUS DISCLOSURE:
ANTHONY POWELL’S A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME

Anthony Powells twelve-volume sequence of novels is one of the
great achievements of fiction in the second half of the twentieth century.
John Rowe aims to look at the techniques by which such an
ambitious project is sustained, and to examine how a master
novelist conducts the movement of events in a highly distinctive
way. There is an art to the way things are revealed and not revealed
in the unfolding of a lengthy narrative. John Roe is Emeritus
Professor of English at the University of York.

13 March 2019
Richard Foster
LIBRARIES IN THE CIVIL WAR AND INTERREGNUM

The fate of important libraries in the Civil War must be a matter of
concern to all bibliophiles. Cathedral libraries, college libraries,
country house libraries and gentleman’s libraries all at risk in
a time of widespread disorder. Here is on account of the fortunes
and misfortunes of some significant collections in those perilous
years. Richard Foster is Fellows’ librarian and Keeper of
collections at Winchester College.

Morley Library, Winchester College

MEMBERS’ EVENING AND SUMMER PARTY
19th June 2019: Medical Society Rooms, Stonegate, York (7.00pm)

Current Programme

PROGRAMME OF EVENTS

October 2016 – June 2017

All meetings will other than the New Year Supper will take place in the the Lecture Room of the York Medical Society, at 23 Stonegate, York YO1 8AW. They take place on Wednesdays and start at 8.00 p.m.

• Wednesday, October 12, 2016 – 7.30 for 8.00 p.m.
  THE PLEASURES OF CATALOGUING
  Paul Quarrie
  (preceded by the AGM at 7.30 p.m.)

• Wednesday, November 9, 2016 – 7.30 for 8.00 p.m.
  A DISCURSIVE SURVEY OF PRIVATE PRESS BOOKS FROM WILLIAM MORRIS TO THE PRESENT DAY
  Michael Taylor

• Wednesday, December 14, 2016 – 7.30 for 8.00 p.m.
  SIR THOMAS HERBERT
  Bruce Wannell

• Wednesday 11 January 2017, 2017 – 7.30 for 8.00 p.m.
  THE SECRETS OF EARLY PRINTED BOOKS: LORD BROTHERTON’S INCUNABULA REVEALED
• Rhiannon Lawrence Francis

• Wednesday, February 8, 2017 – 7.00 for 7.30 p.m.

WINTER DINNER in The Dean Court Hotel, Duncombe Place, York YO1 7EF
(There will be no talk this year)

• Wednesday, March 8, 2017 – 7.30 for 8.00 p.m.

            THE VICISSITUDES OF WRITING BIOGRAPHY

Lisa Cheney

• Wednesday, June 21, 2017 – 7.00 p.m.
  MEMBERS’ EVENING

York Bibliographical Society

York, long been associated with books, through printing, publishing and selling, makes a natural base for a society initiated by, and dedicated to those who love books. Meetings other than the New Year Supper will take place in the Lecture Room of the York Medical Society at 23 Stonegate, York YO1 8AW. The Society combines information and scholarship with entertainment and sociability.

Authors and illustrators, designers and publishers, booksellers and collectors feature in programmes of five winter lectures supplemented by summer visits to memorable libraries.

All who have an interest in books are welcome to join this active group of book lovers. Visitors may attend meetings on payment of a small charge.