The Sandars Readership in Bibliography is an annual lecture series given at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. Instituted in 1895 at the behest of

Samuel Sandars Samuel Sandars (25 April 1837, Chelmsford, Essex - 15 June 1894Obituary, ''The Library'', Vol. s1-6, No. 1, 1894, p. 289) was an English bibliographer, barrister and university benefactor. He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridg ...

of Trinity College (1837–1894), who left a £2000 bequest to the University, the series has continued to the present day. Together with the

Panizzi Lectures The Panizzi Lectures are a series of annual lectures given at the British Library by "eminent scholars of the book" and named after the librarian Anthony Panizzi. They are considered one of the major British bibliographical lecture series alongside ...

at the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

and the

Lyell Lectures The Lyell Readership in Bibliography is an endowed annual lecture series given at the University of Oxford. Instituted in 1952 by a bequest from the solicitor, book collector and bibliographer, James Patrick Ronaldson Lyell. After Lyell's death, ...

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

, it is considered one of the major British bibliographical lecture series.

Lectures

1890s

* 1895: Sir Edward Maunde Thompson. Greek, Latin and English handwriting. * 1896: C. H. Middleton-Wake. The invention of printing. * 1897: W. H. Stevenson. Anglo-Saxon

Chancery Chancery may refer to: Offices and administration * Court of Chancery, the chief court of equity in England and Wales until 1873 ** Equity (law), also called chancery, the body of jurisprudence originating in the Court of Chancery ** Courts of e ...

. * 1898: E. Gordon Duff. The printers, stationers and book-binders of Westminster and London in the 15th century. * 1899: J. W. Clark. The care of books (to the end of the 18th century).

1900–1925

* 1900: F. G. Kenyon. The development of Greek writing, BC 300–AD 900. * 1901:

Henry Yates Thompson Henry Yates Thompson (15 December 1838 – 8 July 1928) was a British newspaper proprietor and collector of illuminated manuscripts. Life and career Yates Thompson was the eldest of five sons born to Samuel Henry Thompson, a banker from a lea ...

. English and French illustrated MSS. of the 13th–15th centuries. * 1902:

M. R. James Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English medievalist scholar and author who served as provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936) as well as Vice-Chancellor of the Univers ...

. Manuscripts in Cambridge. * 1903: E. Gordon Duff. The printers, stationers and book-binders of London, 1500–1535. * 1904: H. Y. Thompson. Illustrated MSS. of the 11th century. * 1905: Sir Edward Maunde Thompson. The history of illumination and ornamentation of MSS. * 1906:

F. W. Maitland Frederic William Maitland (28 May 1850 – ) was an English historian and jurist who is regarded as the modern father of English legal history. From 1884 until his death in 1906, he was reader in English law, then Downing Professor of the Laws ...

. id not lecture* 1907–1908: F. J. H. Jenkinson. Books printed at Cologne by U. Zell. * 1909:

Falconer Madan Falconer Madan (15 April 1851 – 22 May 1935) was Librarian of the Bodleian Library of Oxford University. Early life and education Falconer Madan was born in Cam, Gloucestershire, the fifth son of George and Harriet Madan. He was educated at ...

. The localisation and dating of MSS. * 1910: W. M. Lindsay. Latin Abbreviations. * 1911: E. Gordon Duff. English provincial printers, stationers and book-binders to 1557. * 1912: Arthur Ernest Cowley. The Papyri of Elephantine. * 1913:

W. W. Greg Sir Walter Wilson Greg (9 July 1875 – 4 March 1959), known professionally as W. W. Greg, was one of the leading bibliographers and Shakespeare scholars of the 20th century. Family and education Greg was born at Wimbledon Common in 1875. His ...

. Some bibliographical and textual problems of the English Miracle-play Cycles. * 1914: Elias Avery Lowe. (1) Characteristics of the so-called National Scripts. (2) Punctuation and critical marks as aids in dating and placing MSS. (3) Graeco-Latin manuscripts. (4) The Codex Bezae and the Codex Laudianus. * 1915: A. W. Pollard. The conditions of printing and publishing in Shakespeare’s day in their relation to his text. * 1916–1920: ectures suspended* 1921: E. Wyndham Hulme. Statistical bibliography in relation to the growth of modern civilisation. * 1922: W. C. Bolland. Readings on the Year Books. * 1923:

. The pictorial illustration of the Old Testament from the 14th Century to the 16th. * 1924:

Emery Walker Sir Emery Walker FSA (2 April 1851 – 22 July 1933) was an English engraver, photographer and printer. Walker took an active role in many organisations that were at the heart of the Arts and Crafts movement, including the Art Workers Gu ...

. Printing for book production. * 1925:

Ellis Hovell Minns Sir Ellis Hovell Minns, FBA (16 July 1874 – 13 June 1953) was a British academic and archaeologist whose studies focused on Eastern Europe. Educated at Charterhouse, he went to Pembroke College, Cambridge studying the Classical tripos includi ...

. The influence of materials and instruments upon writing.

1926–1950

* 1926: A. J. K. Esdaile. Elements of the bibliography of English literature, materials and methods. * 1927: G. D. Hobson. English leather bindings down to 1500. * 1928: R. B. McKerrow. The relationship of English printed books to authors’ manuscripts in the 16th and 17th centuries. * 1929: S. De Ricci. English collectors of books and MSS., 1550–1900, and their marks of ownership. * 1930:

Victor Scholderer Julius Victor Scholderer, CBE, FBA (9 October 1880 – 11 September 1971), usually known as Victor Scholderer, was a German bibliographer born in England. Born in London to German parents, he was the son of the artist Otto Scholderer. Scholderer ...

. The invention of printing: facts and theories. * 1931:

Stanley Morison Stanley Arthur Morison (6 May 1889 – 11 October 1967) was a British typographer, printing executive and historian of printing. Largely self-educated, he promoted higher standards in printing and an awareness of the best printing and typefaces ...

. The English newspaper: some account of the physical development of the journals printed in London from 1622 down to the present day. * 1932: J. Dover Wilson. The Hamlet texts, 1604 and 1623. * 1933:

Geoffrey Keynes Sir Geoffrey Langdon Keynes ( ; 25 March 1887, Cambridge – 5 July 1982, Cambridge) was a British surgeon and author. He began his career as a physician in World War I, before becoming a doctor at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, where he ...

. John Evelyn: a study in bibliography. * 1934: E. G. Millar. Some aspects of the comparative study of illuminated MSS. * 1935: Stephen Gaselee. Bibliography and the Classics. * 1936: C. A. Gordon. Manuscript missals; the English uses. * 1937:

Michael Sadleir Michael Sadleir (25 December 1888 – 13 December 1957), born Michael Thomas Harvey Sadler, was a British publisher, novelist, book collector, and Bibliography, bibliographer. Biography Michael Sadleir was born in Oxford, Oxford, England, the ...

. Bibliographical aspects of the Victorian novel. * 1938: C. J. Sisson. The judicious marriage of Mr Hooker and the birth of ‘the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity’. * 1939: H. R. Creswick. Some recent work on early English printed books. * 1940–1946: ectures suspended* 1947: John Carter Taste and technique in book collecting: a study of recent developments in Great Britain and the United States. * 1948: F. Wormald. The Miniatures in the Gospels of St Augustine: Corpus Christi College MS. 286. * 1949: J. Basil Oldham. English blind-stamped bindings. * 1950:

Harold Herbert Williams Sir Harold Herbert Williams (25 July 1880 – 24 October 1964) was an English scholar, priest, lawyer, politician, bibliophile, and expert on the works of Jonathan Swift. Williams was born in Tokyo, the son of Rev. James Williams, an Anglican mis ...

. The text of ''

Gulliver’s Travels ''Gulliver's Travels'', originally titled ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'', is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clerg ...

''.

1951–1975

* 1951: H. S. Bennett. English books and readers 1475 to 1557; being a study in the history of the book trade from Caxton to the incorporation of the Stationers’ Company. * 1952:

J. C. T. Oates John Claud Trewinard Oates FBA (24 June 1912 – 11 June 1990) was a librarian at the University of Cambridge, a trustee of the university, and president of the Bibliographical Society (1970–72). He was educated at The Crypt School, Glouceste ...

. The history of the collection of incunabula in the University Library. * 1953: E. P. Goldschmidt. The first Cambridge press in its European setting. * 1954: S. C. Roberts. The evolution of Cambridge publishing. * 1955: N. R. Ker. Oxford libraries in the sixteenth century. * 1956: Wilmarth S. Lewis.

Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (; 24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English Whig politician, writer, historian and antiquarian. He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twickenham, southwest London ...

’s Library. * 1957: Fredson T. Bowers. Textual criticism and the literary critic. * 1958: H. Graham Pollard. English market for printed books. * 1959: R. W. Hunt. Manuscripts of the Latin classics in England in the Middle Ages. * 1960: C. H. Roberts. The earliest manuscripts of the Church: style and significance. * 1961: A. H. King. Some British collectors of music, 1600–1960. * 1962: F. J. Norton. Printing in Spain 1500–1520. * 1963: J. H. A. Sparrow. The inscription and the book. * 1964:

William T. Stearn William Thomas Stearn (; 16 April 1911 – 9 May 2001) was a British botanist. Born in Cambridge in 1911, he was largely self-educated and developed an early interest in books and natural history. His initial work experience was at a C ...

. Bibliography in the service of biology. * 1965:

Abraham Wheelock Abraham Wheelock (1593 in Whitchurch, Shropshire – 25 September 1653) was an English linguist. He was the first Cambridge professor of Arabic. Cambridge He graduated MA from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1618, and became Fellow of Clare College ...

(1593–1653): Orientalist, Anglo-Saxonist and University Librarian. * 1966: S. Smith. The Darwin Collection in Cambridge University Library. * 1967: Howard Millar Nixon. English bookbinding in the Restoration period. * 1968:

Bruce Dickins Bruce Dickins, Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (26 October 1889 – 4 January 1978), a graduate of Magdalene College, Cambridge, was Professor of English Language at the University of Leeds from 1931 to 1946 (where he succeeded E. V. Gordon), te ...

. Corpus Christi College, the Parker Library. * 1969: A. N. L. Munby. Gothick into art: connoisseurship and medieval miniatures, 1750–1850. * 1970: J. S. L. Gilmour. Some freethinkers and their writings. * 1971: F. J. Stopp. Monsters and hieroglyphs: the broadsheet and emblem book in sixteenth century Germany. * 1972–1973: M. A. Hoskin. Virtues and vices of scientific manuscripts. * 1973–1974:

John Simon Gabriel Simmons John Simon Gabriel Simmons (8 July 1915 – 21 September 2005) was a British scholar of Slavonics. Early years John Simmons was born in Birmingham, England, in 1915. He joined the library at Birmingham University as a "library boy" in 1932, an ...

. Russian printing from the beginnings to 1917: a view from the West. * 1974–1975: A. R. A. Hobson Some book collectors, booksellers and binders in sixteenth century Italy.

1976–2000

* 1975–1976: D. F. Mackenzie. The London book trade in the later seventeenth century. * 1976–1977: J. M. Wells. Two hundred years of American printing, 1776–1976. * 1977–1978: D. F. Foxon. The Stamp Act of 1712. * 1978–1979:

Philip Gaskell Philip Gaskell (6 January 1926 – 31 July 2001) was a British bibliographer and librarian. Life He was born on 6 January 1926 in Highgate, London, the son of John Wellesley Gaskell, director of an engineering company, and his wife, Olive Eliza ...

. Trinity College Library: the first 150 years. * 1979–1980: J. G. Dreyfus. British book typography 1889–1939. * 1980–1981:

Wallace Kirsop Wallace Kirsop (born 4 November 1933) is an Australian scholar in French studies and in book trade history.Colin NettlebeckA Conversation with Wallace Kirsop Institute for the Study of French Australian Relations, Inc. Retrieved 27 February 20 ...

. Books for colonial readers — The nineteenth century Australian experience. * 1981–1982: W. H. Bond. Thomas Hollis of Lincoln’s Inn: collector, designer, and patron. * 1982–1983:

Ruari McLean John David Ruari McDowall Hardie McLean (10 June 1917 – 27 March 2006) was a British typographic designer. Early life and apprenticeship Ruari McLean was born in Scotland on 10 June 1917, in Newton Stewart, Galloway. He was educated at the ...

. Moxon to Morison: The growth of typography as a profession. * 1983–1984: P. C. G. Isaac. William Bulmer, 1757–1830: ‘fine’ printer. * 1984–1985: J. J. G. Alexander. Artists and the book in Padua, Venice and Rome in the second half of the fifteenth century. * 1986–1987: Professor R. A. Leigh. Unsolved problems in the bibliography of J. J. Rousseau. * 1987–1988:

Dorothy Owen Dorothy Mary Owen, , ''née'' Williamson (11 April 1920 – 13 February 2002) was an English archivist and historian. Life Born in Hyde, Cheshire and educated at Manchester University, Dorothy Williamson undertook postgraduate study there u ...

. The medieval canon law: teaching, literature and transmission. * 1988–1989: F. W. Ratcliffe. A pre-Lutheran German psalter: A case study of a fourteenth-century work. * 1989–1990: R. I. Page. Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, and his books. * 1990–1991: D. S. Brewer. The fabulous history of Venus: Studies in the history of mythography from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. * 1991–1992: G. G. Watson. Lord Acton and his library. * 1992–1993: Will Carter.

Gutenberg Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg ( – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and craftsman who invented the movable-type printing press. Though movable type was already in use in East Asia, Gutenberg's invention of the printing ...

’s legacy. * 1993–1994:

Bamber Gascoigne Arthur Bamber Gascoigne (, 24 January 1935 – 8 February 2022) was an English television presenter and author. He was the original quizmaster of '' University Challenge'', which initially ran from 1962 to 1987. Early life and education Gasc ...

. From priceless perfection to cheap charm: stages in the development of colour printing. * 1994–1995: D. J. Bruce. ‘The real Simon Pure’: The life and work of

George Cruikshank George Cruikshank or Cruickshank ( ; 27 September 1792 – 1 February 1878) was a British caricaturist and book illustrator, praised as the "modern William Hogarth, Hogarth" during his life. His book illustrations for his friend Charles Dicken ...

. * 1995–1996: J. Harley-Mason. The Age of Aquatint: a chapter in the history of English book illustration. * 1995–1996: A. Derolez. Textualis formata. * 1996–1997:

G. Thomas Tanselle George Thomas Tanselle (born January 29, 1934) is an American textual critic, bibliographer, and book collector, especially known for his work on Herman Melville. He was Vice President of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation from 1978 to 2006. Bi ...

. Analytical bibliography: an historical introduction. * 1997–1998: G. G. Barber. Bibliography with rococo roses: The 1755

La Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine (, ; ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''Fables'', which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Euro ...

Fables choisies and the arts of the book in eighteenth-century France. * 1998–1999:

Patricia Donlon Patricia "Pat" Donlon (born 1943) is an Irish librarian and academic, and former director of the National Library of Ireland, the first woman to hold that post. Family and early career Patricia Anne Donlon (née McCarthy) was born on 28 Januar ...

. In Fairyland: Irish illustrators of children’s books. * 1999–2000:

Nicolas Barker Nicolas John Barker (born 1932) is a British historian of printing and books. He was Head of Conservation at the British Library from 1976 to 1992. Barker was editor of ''The Book Collector'' from 1965 to 2016 and edited ''The Pleasures of Bib ...

. Type and type-founding in Britain 1485–1720.

2001–2025

* 2000–2001: D. J. McKitterick. Printing versus publishing: Cambridge University Press and Greater Britain 1873–1914. * 2001–2002: C. Fahy. Paper in the sixteenth-century Italian printing industry. * 2002–2003: M. Foot. Description, image and reality: aspects of bookbinding history. * 2003–2004:

Christopher de Hamel Christopher Francis Rivers de Hamel (born 20 November 1950) is a British academic librarian and expert on mediaeval manuscripts. He is a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and former Fellow Librarian of the Parker Library. His book ' ...

. "

Sir Sydney Cockerell Sir Sydney Carlyle Cockerell (16 July 1867 – 1 May 1962) was an English museum curator and collector. From 1908 to 1937, he was director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England. He was knighted in 1934. Biography Sydney Cockerell ma ...

and Illuminated Manuscripts." * 2004–2005:

Paul Needham Paul Needham may refer to: * Paul Needham (librarian) (born 1943), American academic librarian * Paul Needham (footballer) (born 1961), English footballer {{hndis, Needham, Paul ...

. Fifteenth-century printing: the work of the shops. * 2005–2006: James H. Marrow. Word-diagram-picture: the shape of meaning in medieval books. * 2006–2007:

Sarah Tyacke Sarah Jacqueline Tyacke, (''née'' Jeacock; born 29 September 1945) is an English historian of cartography and travel and a former librarian and archivist. From 1991 to 2005 she served as Keeper of Public Records and chief executive of the UK P ...

. Conversations with maps. * 2007–2008:

Peter Kornicki Peter Francis Kornicki (born 1 May 1950) Fellow of the British Academy, FBA is an English Japanologist. He is Emeritus Professor of Japanese at Cambridge University and Emeritus Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge. He is particularly known for h ...

. Having difficulty with Chinese? — The rise of the vernacular book in Japan, Korea and Vietnam. * 2008–2009: Michelle P. Brown. The book and the transformation of Britain, c. 550–1050. * 2009–2010: Gordon Johnson. From printer to publisher: Cambridge University Press transformed, 1950 to 2010. * 2010–2011: James Carley. From private hoard to public repository: archbishops John Whitgift and Richard Bancroft as founders of Lambeth Palace Library. * 2011–2012: Michael Reeve. Printing the Latin Classics — Some episodes. * 2012–2013:

James A. Secord James (Jim) Andrew Secord (born 18 March 1953) is an American-born historian of science. He was a professor (now retired) of history and philosophy of science within the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambri ...

. Visions of science: books and readers at the dawn of the Victorian age.Secord, James A. 2013. ''Visions of Science: Books and Readers at the Dawn of the Victorian Age'' : Sandars Lectures, University of Cambridge, 25-27 February 2013.

ambridge Ambridge may refer to: * Ambridge (''The Archers''), a fictional place in the UK radio programme, ''The Archers'' * Ambridge, Indiana, a former neighborhood, now part of Ambridge Mann, Indiana, US ** Ambridge station, a former railway station in A ...

niversity of Cambridge * 2013–2014: Nigel Morgan. Samuel Sandars as collector of illuminated manuscripts. * 2014–2015: Richard Beadle. Henry Bradshaw and the foundations of codicology. * 2015–2016:

Anthony Grafton Anthony Thomas Grafton (born May 21, 1950) is an American historian of early modern Europe and the Henry Putnam University Professor of History at Princeton University, where he is also the Director the Program in European Cultural Studies. He i ...

. Writing and reading history in Renaissance England: some Cambridge examples. * 2016–2017: Toshiyuki Takamiya. A cabinet of English treasures: Reflections on fifty years of book collecting. * 2017–2018:

Peter Wothers Peter David Wothers, , is a British chemist and author of several popular textbooks aimed at university students. He is a teaching fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and is a fellow of St Catharine's College, C ...

. Chemical attractions. * 2018–2019: William Noel. The medieval manuscript and its digital image. * 2019–2020: Isabelle de Conihout. French bookbindings and bibliophily, 16th–18th centuries. * 2020–2021: Orietta Da Rold. Paper past and paper future. * 2021–2022: Cristina Dondi. Incunabula in Cambridge: European heritage and global dissemination. * 2022–2023:

David Pearson David or Dave Pearson may refer to: * David Pearson (librarian) (born 1955), British librarian and scholar * David Pearson (racing driver) (1934–2018), American car racing champion * David Pearson (geologist) (born 1942), Canadian scientist, acad ...

. Cambridge Bookbinding, 1450–1700.

References

External links

Sandars Readership in Bibliography
*
List of Sandars Readers and Lecture Subjects
. Cambridge University Library. 2019. {{Books * History of books History of literature Lecture series at the University of Cambridge Textual criticism 1895 establishments in England Recurring events established in 1895 Lecture series