VI.—Recent Discoveries in the Bodleian Library

Archaeologia ◽  
1967 ◽  
Vol 101 ◽  
pp. 151-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. N. L. Myres

The group of medieval and seventeenth-century buildings which forms the subject of this paper lies in the centre of academic Oxford, between the site of the city wall on the north, Exeter College and its garden on the west and south, and the old Schools Quadrangle on the east. It constitutes indeed the heart of the medieval university. In writing to Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, on 14th July 1444 the authorities described the site as eminently suitable for a library because it was somewhat remote from secular noises. In spite of a marked increase in secular noises over the past 500 years in traffic-ridden Oxford, this description remains substantially true today. The buildings, erected then and later, remain in external appearance almost exactly as they are depicted in David Loggan's Oxonia Illustrate. of 1675 (pl. xxvii). They comprise the Divinity School, for which the university was already collecting money and laying the foundations in 1423 ; Duke Humphrey's Library, built over it in the forty-five years following the letter to Duke Humphrey of 1444; Arts End and the Proscholium added at right angles to the east by Sir Thomas Bodley in 1610–12; and Selden End with the Convocation House below, attached similarly to the west in 1637–40. The three upper rooms, Duke Humphrey, Selden End, Arts End, form the core of the ancient buildings of the Bodleian Library: they have been continuously in use for library purposes for between 320 and 360 years.

1978 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-113
Author(s):  
Joseph Needham

My assignment today, as I understand it, is to say something about the Second International Congress of the History of Science, the only previous one held in the United Kingdom; to mention some of the great historians of science which these islands have produced; and to direct our thoughts for a few moments to the historiography of science, technology and medicine, namely the guiding ideas in the light of which one should attempt to write it. So much has already been said in thanks to the city and the university in which we are now assembled that I could hardly add to it, except to express my personal sense of elation at coming on this occasion to the ‘Athens of the North’ where so many distinguished men have lived in the past, from mediaeval times onwards.


X ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federica Carta ◽  
Diego Ros McDonnell ◽  
Pedro Enrique Collado Espejo

The Atalaya Castle (eighteenth century), in Cartagena (Region of Murcia, Spain). Formal and constructive analysisThe Atalaya Castle (eighteenth century) is one of the military fortifications that were part of the defense of Cartagena. The defensive system of the period was composed of an important walled enclosure, which surrounded the city, the arsenal, and a group of fortresses outside the city wall, located on the nearby hills. One of these defensive constructions is the Atalaya Castle or Fort, located to the west of the city from its position it protected the population from attacks both by land and by sea. To the north and west by land, through the Almarjal and the Pelayo mountains, the south by sea covered the possible landings in the bays of the Algameca Grande and the Algameca Chica. The building is a magnificently construction, the fort has a pentagon ground plan with five bastions at each angle. It has an interior building in U arranged on a solid bastioned platform the whole complex is surrounded by a dry moat. The fortification present certain formal elements used in other constructions that had been lifted in the city at that time, circumstance gave unity to the whole. The materials consisted of employed mainly stone and brick, the constructive elements introduce certain heterogeneity. The purpose of the communication is to present the results of the comprehensive analysis carried out in the Atalaya Castle as well as to contribute, through its dissemination to raise awareness of the need for its restoration and enhancement. Research has studied the characteristics of the formal and constructive system of the fortification currently in a state of semiabandonment, a proposal has also been conducted for a new cultural use as a guarantee of its correct recovery and conservation.


1972 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 156-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Vickers

SummaryIt would seem that the plan of Thessaloniki (fig. 4) was laid out at the time of the city's foundation by Cassander in c. 316 b.c. and that it has close parallels in the plans of other early Hellenistic cities. There was possibly an agora in the upper city from the beginning, but the principal, commercial agora of the Hellenistic city was probably closer to the sea. A large open space to the west was possibly a ‘sacred area’ in Hellenistic times, but the only religious centre whose site is known with any degree of certainty is the Serapeum. A gymnasium is known to have existed to the north of the city from the late Hellenistic period at least, and a nearby stadium probably goes back to Hellenistic times as well.The Hellenistic fortifications probably followed the lines of those of the mid-fifth century a.d. In common with many other Hellenistic cities there is an acropolis incorporated in the city wall, but the fortifications of Thessaloniki are slightly anomalous in that the lower stretches of the east and west walls run parallel with some of the streets of the city plan.Thus, even though the reconstruction of Hellenistic Thessaloniki may be an elusive and often a speculative business, the statement of an anonymous writer to the effect that ‘il ne reste à Thessaloniki aucun vestige de la ville hellénistique’ is certainly exaggerated.


2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 458-474
Author(s):  
J.H. Richardson
Keyword(s):  
The West ◽  

In 209 b.c. P. Cornelius Scipio captured the city of New Carthage. The victory was crucial for the Roman war effort in Spain, and indeed in Italy too, but Scipio's campaign is especially memorable—and the subject of much debate—on account of the manner in which the city was taken. New Carthage had in effect been built on a peninsula, with the sea to the south and a lagoon to the north, and with a canal joining the two to the west. The city, therefore, could only be approached by land from the east; but, according to Polybius, Scipio had learnt from some fishermen that the lagoon was shallow and could be forded in most places and, moreover, that the waters in it usually receded each evening (10.8.7). It was this knowledge that Scipio exploited to take the city. But this same knowledge he also kept from his men (10.9.1, 10.9.4–5). In his address to his soldiers prior to the attack, Polybius says, Scipio told them that Poseidon had visited him in his sleep and had promised to assist the Romans in their operations in a way that would be apparent to all (10.11.7).


Author(s):  
T.P. Wiseman

The construction date of the ‘Servian’ wall and its layout in the riverside area between the Aventine and the Capitol are the two main questions addressed in this article. The interlocking topographical problems were addressed in 1988 by Filippo Coarelli, whose interpretation has become the generally accepted orthodoxy. But not all the difficulties have been solved, and with Coarelli's recent return to the subject a fresh examination of the evidence may be helpful. Careful attention is given here to stories of early Rome that involve the walls and gates, as reported in Livy, Dionysius and Plutarch; they are not, of course, taken as authentic evidence for the time of the alleged events, but as indicating what was taken for granted when the stories were first composed. New suggestions are made about a revision of the line of the city wall in 212 BC and the consequent restructuring of two important gates, the Porta Carmentalis and the Porta Trigemina; the mysterious ‘Porta Triumphalis’ is discussed separately in an appendix.


1976 ◽  
Vol 1 (15) ◽  
pp. 143 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Dorrington Mettam

In March 1972 the author's firm in association with two Portuguese firms of consulting engineers, Consulmar and Lusotecna, were appointed by the Portuguese Government agency Gabinete da Area de Sines to prepare designs for the construction of a new harbour at Sines on the west coast of Portugal. The location is shown in Figure 1. The main breakwater, which is the subject of this paper, is probably the largest breakwater yet built, being 2 km long and in depths of water of up to 50 m. It is exposed to the North Atlantic and has been designed for a significant wave height of 11 m. Dolos units invented by Merrifield (ref. 1) form the main armour. The project programme required that studies be first made of a wide range of alternative layouts for the harbour. After the client had decided on the layout to be adopted, documents were to be prepared to enable tenders for construction to be invited in January 1973. This allowed little time for the design to be developed and only one series of flume tests, using regular waves, was completed during this period. Further tests in the regular flume were completed during the tender period and a thorough programme of testing with irregular waves was commenced later in the year, continuing until August 1974 when the root of the breakwater was complete and the construction of the main cross-section was about to start. The model tests, which were carried out at the Laboratorio Nacional de Engenharia Civil in Lisbon, were reported by Morals in a paper presented to the 14th International Coastal Engineering Conference in 1974. (ref. 2)


2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Josipa Baraka ◽  
Jure Šućur

The site of Pakoštane-Crkvina, situated at the position called Košević at the west coast of the Vrana Lake, in the immediate vicinity of the road connecting Pakoštane and Vrana, has been systematically excavated by the Department of Archaeology of the University of Zadar. On this occasion the authors selected numismatic finds which were recovered during the last five research campaigns out of multitude of archaeological objects. Total of 11 coins were found so far, covering wide chronological range from the 4th to 18th centuries. Numismatic finds from the site of Pakoštane – Crkvina were poorly preserved. However after cleaning and conservation it was possible to determine with certainty dating of ten preserved numismatic finds. This numismatic material represents a reflection of historical-commercial activities of the wider Mediterranean region, including the city of Zadar and its wider surrounding which comprises the site of Pakoštane-Crkvina as its inseparable part.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aslı Alanlı

Since the 1990s, the university space has been the subject of many discussions due to the introduction of communication technologies to the learning process,which has become significantly visible after the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic nowadays. These debates focus on the two extreme points ofwhether university space is necessary or not. In this regard, this research claims that the arguments on this topic are based on subject-object duality. It aims to develop a ground covering the discussions that oscillate between the two extremes by referring to sociomateriality, which advocates the interwovenness of subject and object. Adopting a retrospective perspective, itrediscovers the debates from the 1960s at the onto-epistemological levelthrough a sociomaterial lens. Finally, it situates the discussion on university space within the past-present-future dialogue.


Author(s):  
Anna Harris ◽  
John Nott

This paper explores the material histories which influence contemporary medical education. Using two obstetric simulators found in the distinct teaching environments of the University of Development Studies in the north of Ghana and Maastricht University in the south of the Netherlands, this paper deconstructs the material conditions which shape current practice in order to emphasise the past practices that remain relevant, yet often invisible, in modern medicine. Building on conceptual ideas drawn from STS and the productive tensions which emerge from close collaboration between historians and anthropologists, we argue that the pull of past practice can be understood as a form of friction, where historical practices ‘stick’ to modern materialities. We argue that the labour required for the translation of material conditions across both time and space is expressly relevant for the ongoing use and future development of medical technologies.


1886 ◽  
Vol 39 (239-241) ◽  
pp. 394-404

The question of the geological age of the yellow sandstones of the district lying to the north of the city of Elgin has been, as is well known, the subject of very animated discussions among geologists. Some have even gone so far as to assert that the evidence on the question, which has been adduced by palaeontologists, is absolutely incapable of reconciliation with that relied upon by stratigraphists.


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