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Research spotlights

Gawain evolving drafts once crop

Notes and drafts for Simon Armitage's translation of 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' show how his working practices evolved as he worked on the poem.

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SA_Walking Home/1

In 2010 Simon Armitage spent 19 days walking the 256 mile Pennine Way as a 'modern troubadour'. This online resource presents archive material relating to the walk and creation of Walking Home, held by Special Collections.

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Excerpt from the Bragg notebook

Explore the notebook in which William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg recorded the results of their Nobel prize-winning experiments carried out in the summer of 1913.

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BC MS 19c Brontë/B4/2

Francis O'Gorman, Professor of Victorian Literature at the University of Leeds, introduces the Brontë family manuscripts, part of the original Brotherton Collection.

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Branwell Bronte letter fragment

Explore the Brotherton Collection of letters written by Branwell Brontë.

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Ovid Opera Volume 3 G3r (detail)

Learn about the remarkable Brotherton Collection copy of the works of Ovid, printed in Parma in 1477. Discover who owned the books, and who might have added the hundreds of marginal annotations and colourful illustrations.

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Detail of score for Chaucer Songs, Denis ApIvor, 1936

An in-depth look at the life of composer Denis ApIvor (1916-2004) and the collection of his manuscript scores held in Special Collections.

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Drouet letter crop

Discover highlights from the collection of over 400 letters written to Victor Hugo by Juliette Drouet held in Special Collections.

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Freemantle portrait

Guide to the Freemantle Collection in the Leeds University Special Collections and the significant materials that can be found within.

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Propeller - Austin Wright

A history of the Gregory Fellowships in Poetry, Painting, Scuplture and Music at the University of Leeds.

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Harrison p54 Bottom Layer crop

Trace the development of Tony Harrison's poem 'Them & [uz]' through the series of evolving drafts contained in the pages of one of his notebooks.

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Laban detail from Titan floorplan

Rudolf Laban's life as told through archives in Leeds University Special Collections.

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Melvyn Bragg delivering a lecture on the King James bible

Notable people linked with the University of Leeds and its Library.

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Leeds Poetry Banner

A joint project between the School of English and Leeds University Library bringing together the work of poets at the University of Leeds between 1950-1980.

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Mysteries of Udolpho, 1828 (BC Gen/RAD)

An introduction to the history of Gothic Fiction, through books and manuscripts in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.

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Brotherton Collection MS 18, fol. 7r

Explore digitised images of medieval manuscript illumination. Find out more about the significant provenances of the manuscripts, and how they came to the University of Leeds Library.

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Menasseh ben Israel imprint

Explore the work of Menasseh Ben Israel, rabbi, scholar, philosopher, diplomat and Hebrew printer, through books in the Cecil Roth Collection.

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Novello collection guide image BC MS NCC/9/2/43

Biographies of members of the Novello, Cowden Clarke and Gigliucci families; an extraordinary Anglo-Italian family of artists, musicians, writers, publishers and actors of the long nineteenth century.

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Richard Cobden by Emma Novello Cropped

A focused study of the 1861 portrait of the politician Richard Cobden by the artist Emma Aloysia Novello, supported by an Understanding British Portraits Fellowship in 2024.

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Poetry and Audience Edition 11, 29 August 1963

Exploring the evolving design of the pioneering Poetry and Audience magazine. An online exhibition from Special Collections at Leeds University Library.

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Plum Pudding Mrs Beeton Colour

View examples from books in the University of Leeds Cookery Collection illustrating the stories behind some traditional Christmas dishes, and look at the variety of ways in which people have celebrated Christmas over the centuries.

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Preliminary page 17

Use this resource to explore the University of Leeds Brotherton Collection digital First Folio, to find out more about the significance of the book, and the history of this particular copy.

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Utopia 1A

Thomas More’s novel Utopia was first published in Latin in 1516. Famous for it's playful account of an ideal society set on an island of the same name, the word has since become known as a general term for a better vision of the world.

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Discover some of the coins in the Winchester Cabinet, a collection of over 3000 ancient coins, medals and tokens collected by William Eyre, an eighteenth-century barrister, held by Leeds Special Collections, University of Leeds Library.

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744581_001 cropped.jpg

A Research Spotlight exploring the history and achievements of Women’s Aid Federation of England over their 50-year history, since their formation in 1974.

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