Iconography
Writing Blanks, Board Games and other Educational Games of the 18th and 19th centuries from the John Johnson and Harding Collections Since the acquisition of the Opie Collection, the Bodleian has become a centre for studies in juvenilia; this has led to increased interest in the games in the John Johnson Collection, with concomitant preservation and handling problems. Many of these games are housed in drawers, others in large folders. Because of their size they are vulnerable. They are also rare. The aim of the project was to digitise a large proportion of this material, and to make it available to the international research community both through the John Johnson Collection online catalogue and through the ODL website.
The Arthurian Romances, or MS 229, is one of the jewels in the crown of medieval manuscript illumination. Written in Northern France toward the end of the 13th century, this copy of the great French romance is known for the abundance and richness of its illuminations, and even more so for the intricacy, mystery, and wildness of the images in the margins including animals, jesters, archers, and musicians. About the Codex Parchment, ff. i (paper) + 363 + i (paper). Written in elegant gothic textura by one scribe, with a few interlinear corrections in later hands.