Registration is open for the conference The Living Bookshelf: The Ancient Library in Text which will be taking place at Corpus Christi College, Oxford on the 13th and 14th of September 2025.
The keynote paper will be delivered by Alexandra Schultz (Dartmouth College), and speakers include Emma Greensmith (University of Oxford), Thomas Coward (University of Bristol) and Talitha Kearey (University of St. Andrews). A full conference programme will follow. We are grateful for support from the AHRC Open-Oxford-Cambridge Doctoral Training Partnership, the Corpus Christi Centre for the Study of Greek and Roman Antiquity, the Hellenic Society and the Faculty of Classics at the University of Cambridge.
The conference will also feature additional graduate training events beginning on the afternoon of the 12th. We are also therefore inviting 400-word abstracts for 20-minute graduate papers, and applications for graduates to deliver a prepared 5-minute response to a paper (the CfP can be found at the link below). Limited paper slots mean some students submitting abstracts may be asked to deliver a response instead. Applications to deliver a response should include a short statement about your research interests. Graduates who deliver a paper or response will have their participation in the conference covered (except for a £12 charge for wine at dinner). A limited amount of accommodation is expected to be available for graduates travelling to Oxford, but we are unable to assist with travel costs.
Attendees and graduates can register here.
PROGRAMME
Friday 12th September
Afternoon Training Workshop
(Graduates only) Corpus Christi Library staff on accessing and handling manuscripts and early printed material.
Saturday 13th September
Session 1 – 9:00-10:30am
Welcome and Opening Remarks
Ruth Mitchell-Fox (Cambridge): “But truly the labour was shared for both of us…: Collection, Selection and the Author as Individual in Late Antiquity”
Annabel Rockett (Oxford): “Do you not recognise the Library?: The Archive of the Mind in Boethius’ Consolatio Philosophiae.”
Coffee Break – 10:30-11am
Session 2, Keynote Paper – 11:00-12:30pm
Alexandra Schultz (Dartmouth) – “The libraries of Alexandria and new approaches to Hellenistic Literature”
Lunch – 12:30-1:30pm
Session 3 – 1:30-3:00pm
Thomas Coward (Bristol) – “Philodemus the Mythographer and Doxographer”
Angharad Derbyshire (Cambridge) – “Disorienting the Library in Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius”
Coffee Break – 3:00-3:30pm
Session 4 – 3:30-5:00pm
Emma Greensmith (Oxford) – “Reshelving Later Greek Epic”
Ryan Comins (Cambridge) – “Scriptural Translation as a Nexus between Libraries in Hasmonean and Roman Palestine”
Conference Dinner
6:45pm – Drinks Reception
7:30pm – Dinner
Sunday 14th September
Training Workshop – 9:00-10:30am
(Graduates only) Communicating your research, led by Alexandra Schultz
Coffee Break – 10:30-11:00am
Session 5 – 11:00-12:30pm
Charles Baker (Oxford) – “Bookish Knowledge in the Scholia to the Iliad”
Talitha Kearey (St Andrews) – TBC
Lunch – 12:30-1:30pm
Session 6 – 1:30-3:00pm
Ruthanne Brooks (Oxford) – “Qumran as Library and the Question of Canonicity and Authority”
Leo Boonstra (Cambridge)- “Libraries of Touch: Affective Textuality in Greek Romance”
Coffee Break – 3:00-3:30pm
Session 7 – 3:30-5:00pm
Amelie de Lara (Oxford) – “Pliny’s Living Library”
Mathijs Clement (Cambridge) – “Gregory of Nazianzus and the library at Caesarea”
Closing Remarks