First Wadham item published in Digital Bodleian

Digital Bodleian makes portions of the Bodleian's extraordinary library collections open to a wide variety of users from around the world for learning, teaching and research.

The first item from Wadham to be included in Digital Bodleian is a collection of woodcuts by German renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer. The woodcuts depict the Passion of the Christ and are accompanied by verses from Benedict Chelidonius.

Wadham librarian, Tim Kirtley, says, "We are delighted to be joining Digital Bodleian, with the aim of providing full access to more and more items from our special collections to anyone in the world with a screen and an internet connection.

At over 300MB per image, the level of detail in which researchers and interested members of the public can examine the page is fabulous. These intricate and beautiful, 500 year-old Durer woodcuts take full advantage of that detail. Digitisation also means the originals don't need to be handled nearly as often - a great advantage for the long-term preservation of our collections!

We would love to digitise further items: with such incredibly impressive holdings as we are lucky enough to have built up over the last 400 plus years - from medieval manuscripts to Shakespeare's First Folio, with Copernicus and Newton in between - we would be literally spoilt for choice as to what to digitise. The benefits that the platform holds for both library and researchers are huge, as are the opportunities for public engagement and reputational enhancement. We are very grateful to Wadham's College Improvement Fund for its help towards the cost of joining the platform."

The digitised copies of the woodcuts are available to browse right now at Digital Bodleian!

None of what we do at Wadham would be possible without the support of our alumni and friends. If you would like to get involved, or are interested in hearing more about the Library's digitisation work, please contact the Development Office.