20 August 2022
This wasn’t what I expected! I mean, I wouldn’t identify myself as being someone who buries themself in libraries researching historical documents! So, purely for the sake of curiosity I gave this a try, thinking I would be out of there in two shakes of a cat’s whisker.
I found myself in the Bodleian Library, in Oxford, looking round at all those amazing oak tables and walls filled to bursting point with antique books. I’d never been there before so I was taking it all in when this lady professor appears and starts telling me about an ancient vellum manuscript she’s been researching.
She has me hooked as soon as she mentions King Henry and his trip to Paris to recruit students for the recently opened University of Oxford. I mean, what has changed, in a thousand years?
Then this other character comes in, dressed as the King, complete with crown, and speaks in Latin while the Prof translates into English from the document we see on the presentation screen with coloured, animated words to accompany his speech!
I found it fascinating and the VR really made it feel like I was there with these guys, rooting for the King and his recruiting message.
I wanted to share this with you so that you get the chance to experience it for yourself. Book your place here. It may be only 13 minutes long but it felt to me like a piece of living history, shared through the translation of an ancient manuscript by someone who knows what they are talking about, using a document still archived in this ancient library and now brought alive through VR.
Many thanks to Oxford University for making it all so intelligently accessible.