BLP-Spring-2015-Catalogue

NEW TITLESLatin Inscriptions in OxfordFor this book Reginald Adams has assembled,translated and explained a wide selection ofOxford’s Latin inscriptions (and a few Greek ones).These can be found in many accessible places inboth city and university, dating from the medievalperiod to the present day. Their purposes rangefrom tributes and memorials to decorations andwitty commentaries on the edifice that they adorn.The figures commemorated include Queen Anne,Roger Bacon, Cardinal Wolsey, Cecil Rhodes, T.E. Lawrence and a kind landlady who provided‘enormous breakfasts’, as well as other eminentscholars and generous benefactors. Theseevocative mementos of the past bring insight tothe informed observer of their surroundings andalso vividly illustrate the history of Oxford.104 pages, 198 x 129 mmISBN: 978 1 85124 430 0Paperback, £9.99May 2015Compiled with translations by ReginaldH. AdamsFor the first six centuries from the institution'sfoundation, Latin was the language spoken andwritten at the University of Oxford. It’s no surprise,then, to find that the inscriptions carved into themonuments, colleges and municipal buildings ofthe city are for the most part also in Latin. It is alsoa language which lends itself to compression, soan inscription in Latin uses fewer characters thanEnglish, for example, saving space and money.But what do they all mean?Reginald H. Adams was a scholar of St John’sCollege, Oxford in the 1930s. He began his careeras a schoolmaster, served in the Royal Artillerythroughout the Second World War and was forthirty years one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors ofSchools. He was the author of The College Gracesof Oxford and Cambridge (2013).‘Let no-one who is smoke-bearing enter here’Rhodes House‘Without experiment it is not possible to know anything adequately’Botanical Gardens‘On this site Irene Frude, the most kindly landlady…provided each day for almost thirty-five years enormous breakfasts’Little Clarendon StreetALSO OF INTERESTThe College Graces ofOxford and CambridgeISBN: 978 1 85124 083 8Paperback, £9.99SEE PAGE 2112